Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt

A popular contemporary French author and dramatist, his plays are translated and staged in more than 30 countries all over the world. He studied at the Lycée du Parc in Lyon and was accepted at the famous École normale supérieure in Paris (1980–1985), where he received a doctorate in philosophy. As the theme for his dissertation, he chose "Diderot and metaphysics". He spent three years teaching in Cherbourg and at the university of Chambéry. He is of Alsation extraction. Both of his parents were physical education teachers. Growing up under the influence of his parents' atheist outlook, Schmitt eventually professed himself a Christian, after years of being an agnostic.