Antoine de Caunes (born 1 December 1953) is a French television presenter, actor, writer and film director. He is the son of two prominent French personalities, television journalist-reporter Georges de Caunes and television announcer Jacqueline Joubert. He is the father of the actress Emma de Caunes.

He began his career writing theme songs for cartoons for Antenne 2 under the pseudonym of Paul Persavon, including Cobra and Space Sheriff Gavan (known in France as X-Or).

His early TV appearances included Chorus (1975), the series Les Enfants du rock, again for A2, and then his breakthrough with Nulle part ailleurs for Canal+.

De Caunes came to fame in the English-speaking world on the BBC2 television series Rapido, notable for his catchphrase, in the thickest of French accents, "Rap, Rap, Rap, Rapiiiidoo". He then went on to create the long-running adult entertainment programme Eurotrash with Jean-Paul Gaultier for Channel 4. He also presented a short-lived chat show on Channel 4 called Le Show. In addition he appeared in an advertising campaign for Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles ice lollies.

From 2013 until 2015, he hosted Canal+'s a daily evening show Le Grand Journal.

He provided voices in the Aardman Animation TV show Rex the Runt.

He is a long-time AIDS awareness campaigner, fronting the organisation Solidarité sida (AIDS Solidarity).

Source: Article "Antoine de Caunes" from Wikipedia in english, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.