Tautou achieved international recognition for her lead role in the 2001 film Amélie, which was critically acclaimed and a major box-office success.

She has since appeared in films in a range of genres, including the thrillers Dirty Pretty Things (2002) and The Da Vinci Code (2006), and the romantic comedy Priceless (2006).

In June 2004, she became one of the few French actors invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Her father, Bernard Tautou, is a dental surgeon, and her mother Eveline Marie Laure (née Nuret) is a teacher.

In 2001, Tautou rose to international fame for her performance as the eccentric lead in the romantic comedy Amélie (original French title: Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain; English: The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain), a film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, it is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre, and tells the story of a shy waitress who decides to improve the lives of those around her while struggling with her own isolation.

[6] In 2002, Tautou appeared in the British thriller film Dirty Pretty Things directed by Stephen Frears and written by Steven Knight, a drama about two illegal immigrants in London.

It is a fictional tale about a young woman's desperate search for her fiancé who might have been killed in the Battle of the Somme during World War I.

[3] In 2005, Tautou starred in her first full Hollywood production, opposite Tom Hanks, in the film version of Dan Brown's best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard and released in May 2006.

She starred alongside Gad Elmaleh in Pierre Salvadori's Hors de prix (Priceless), released 13 December 2006.

[7] Tautou starred with Guillaume Canet in Claude Berri's Hunting and Gathering (Ensemble, c'est tout) in 2007, an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Anna Gavalda.