His father, an antiques dealer, came from Khenchela in Algeria and his mother was from France.

Both hid during the World War II: his father in Lyon and his mother in Normandy.

[1] His father sent him to a woodworking school, but Melki only stayed a few months.

After a first appearance on screen in 1992 in the Claude Chabrol film Betty, Gilbert Melki rose to prominence in 1996 through Would I Lie To You?

by Thomas Gilou in which he played Patrick Abitbol, a great businessman and millionaire megalomaniac, a role he revisited in the sequel in 2001.