[1] He was the first French-African actor to land major roles in both cinema (he acted in Renoir and Pujol movies among others) and theater (performing in over 100 plays), having his first successes in the 1920s.

Habib Benglia was born on 25 August 1895 in Oran, Algeria to caravaniers parents originally from French Sudan (now Mali), he spent his childhood in Timbuktu.

He travelled with his parents to mainland France in 1912 to deliver camels to the Jardin d'Acclimatation, where the colonial exhibition ‘Les Nègres’ was being held in 1912.

[2] Benglia decided to stay in France and began his career in 1913, in both theatre and film, after meeting the actress and dancer Régine Flory, who introduced him to Cora Laparcerie, director of the Théâtre de la Renaissance.

[2] Mobilised during the First World War, Benglia then joined Firmin Gémier's theatre company, which became the Théâtre National de l'Odéon under Gaston Baty in 1922.