Karl Zéro

Karl Zéro is the stage name of Marc Tellenne (born August 6, 1961 in Aix-les-Bains, Savoie), is a French writer, actor and filmmaker. Zéro is also a political talk show host/personality (Le Vrai Journal) who has recorded albums of pop standards of the 1940s and 1950s.

Karl Zéro is the youngest son of Gui Tellenne, a civil servant and poet, and Annick Tellenne, an author and talk-show host. He has three brothers: Éric, a writer under the name of Raoul Rabut, Bruno (aka Basile de Koch) and Olivier, a business executive. In the late 1970s Éric, Bruno and Marc founded the satirical comedy troupe Groupe d'Intervention culturelle Jalons. 1979 Zéro met his later wife and mother of their three children Anne-Laure Chaptel (today's stage name: Daisy d'Errata) in the lyceum both were attending. Anne-Laure as well as Bruno’s wife Virginie (Frigide Barjot) later on became members of the Jalons.

Zéro's first publication was a comic entitled The Adventures of Edmond in the magazine Jalons in the early 1980s. Subsequently, he started to work for the publications Métal Hurlant, Charlie Hebdo, Zoulou, and L'Écho des savanes, first as an artist and then as a story writer. At the same time, in 1981, he started working for the trendy magazine Actuel as a journalist specialising in interviewing stars. He also joined the just formed team of Radio Nova, working alongside his future wife, Daisy d’Errata. He then joined Globe and Lui, where his talents as an interviewer attracted notice. For a few months he hosted a comedy radio show on RFM with Antoine de Caunes and Albert Algoud called Babebibou.