Muriel Robin is the youngest of three children of Antoine Robin and Aimée Rimbaud, who owned shoe-shops in Montbrison. She had two sisters, Nydia and Martine. In 1960, the family moved to Saint-Étienne. When she was very young, she liked to make people laugh and dreamed of becoming a singer. After a lacklustre school career and a love of parties, she ended up failing her Baccalaureate twice in a row. Unsure of which career to follow, she started to sell shoes in one of the family's three shops, without being really motivated. In 1977, aged 22, she left Saint-Étienne for Paris, taking a course in dramatic arts at Cours Florent, the entry college for the National Superior Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, in Paris. She left as Conservatory Laureate, and returned to sell shoes again in Saint-Étienne
The 1980s
In 1981, she joined Roger Louret, whom she had met in Paris, in Monclar, with his theatre company, Les Baladins en Agenais. Notable people that she met there include Elie Semoun and Annie Grégorio. In 1983, she returned to Paris with Annie Grégorio to work at the Petit Théâtre de Bouvard., where she also met Didier Bénureau. She came up against the authoritarian methods of Philippe Bouvard, but, even so, he gave her a part in a play he had written, Double Foyer. Following that, she played in a role co-written with Didier Bénureau, Maman ou Donne-moi ton linge, je fais une machine, , in 1986, in Avignon, and in 1987 in Paris, at the Théâtre de Dix heures. The play was later shown in Monclar at the Théâtre de Poche. She became known to the wider public, towards the end of the 1980s through a television programme called La Classe, broadcast by FR3. Muriel Robin met and became good friends with Pierre Palmade. They created her first one-woman-show together, Les majorettes se cachent pour mourir, in 1988, directed by Roger Louret. This programme was a success and pushed Robin into the limelight.
The 1990s
During the 1990s, Robin appeared in numerous plays including Tout m’Enerve, Bedos-Robin a collaboration with Roger Louret, Feu la Ma La Mère, and On Purge Bébé. She also spent some time presenting her work on radio, on Europe 1, with her programme, Tout Robin. In 1997, she obtained her first role in cinema, replacing Valérie Lemercier in Les Couloirs du temps : Les Visiteurs 2by Jean-Marie Poiré. The same year she wrote and directed with Pierre Palmade in the play, Ils s'aiment, played by Pierre Palmade and Michèle Laroque, which was a notable success with the public and received a nomination for the Molière for the Best One-Man-Show or Sketch Show.
The 2000s
In May, 2000, she announced that she would finish with the genre of the one-woman-show and concentrate on her profession as a comedian, but also that year, took her first big role in cinema in the eponymous role of Marie-Line, by Medhi Charef. Other roles on stage and screen followed, in the following years.
Support for charity
Between 1992 and 2007, Muriel Robin was active in supporting concerts by the Enfoirés given for "the Restos du Cœur" created by Coluche and of which she became a sponsor until 2007. In 2001 she became equally involved with the journalist Marine Jacquemin in "La Chaine de l’Espoir" organised by the French Medical Institute for "L'Enfant de Kaboul", in Afghanistan. This hospital opened in 2005.
