The son of a surgeon, he became a tutor for sons of the bourgeoisie then left teaching to join a troupe of actors at the theaters du Vaudeville (1790–1797) and des Troubadours (1797–1800).
After seven years at the Vaudeville, it passed to the Troubadours of which he became deputy director until bankruptcy forced the theatre to closed down on 1 March 1800.
After he became a teacher of literature and morality in a ladies boarding school (1801), he obtained a position of clerk of court in Saint-Denis but continued to have his plays presented at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, the Théâtre des Variétés, the Théâtre-Français, the Théâtre de la Gaîté or the Théâtre de l'Odéon.
The First Restoration had him lose his position of registrar but he managed to find a post in the administration of revenue stamp before becoming theatre manager of the Théâtre de Nantes (1816-1818).
He died on 28 March 1823 in Paris, aged 57.