ABOUT US

Jacques ESSEBAG began his career on a local radio station, Radio Massy Palaiseau, in the Paris suburbs, before switching to Radio Nord Essonne, where he hosted a programme called Tonus. He quickly came to the attention of the boss of Radio RFM and, in 1987, was invited to take part in a radio presenters contest, which he won. He was then hired to host a nighttime show on RFM, which he did for just a month before being catapulted into presenting the station’s primetime 6 to 9 am slot.

It was at this point that he adopted the pseudonym Arthur. In 1988 he continued his career at Kiss FM. A year later he jumped ship for Skyrock radio, and in 1991 went to join the team at Fun Radio. He then spent four years at Europe 1, and three at Europe 2, before finally returning in 2000 to Fun Radio, where he stayed for four years and set up Planetarthur.com, the company that produces the radio shows he hosted. Then came a two-year stint back at Europe 2.

In 2010, Arthur bought OÜI FM and the following year purchased Radio de la Mer, which was sold in 2019 to GROUPEMENT 81.

TV – presenting and producing:

Since 1992, Arthur has hosted the following shows:

On France 2: Les Enfants de la Télé (which won the 7 d’Or award for best new show, and later aired on TF1), Les Enfants du Cinéma, Le Bêtisier du Samedi, La Fureur du Samedi Soir (which won the 7 d’Or award for best musical show in 1997).

On TF1: L’Emission Impossible, La Fureur, La Fureur du Parc Spéciale Fête de la Musique, Les P’tites Canailles, 120 Minutes de Bonheur, 120 Minutes de Bonheur Spéciale Réveillon du Jour de l’an 2000, 60‘ avant 2001, La Fureur de Béziers Spéciale Fête de la Musique, Club de l’Info Amateur (C.I.A), co-hosted with Dominique Farrugia, Rêve d’Un Soir, Rêve d’Un Jour, Personne n’est Parfait, Nice People (les prime times) co-hosted with Flavie Flament, A Prendre ou à Laisser, NRJ Music Awards 2007, Les Enfants du 31, Les stars se Dépassent pour ELA.

In 1994, Arthur set up Case Productions along with Stéphane Courbit. Four years later they went into partnership with Endemol and founded the ASP Endemol Group. They later successively set up Endemol Development, managed by Arthur, and Endemol France, co-managed alternately by Arthur and Stéphane Courbit until 2007. Through these two companies, they developed and bought several affiliates: Case Productions, ASP Productions, Niouprod, So Nice Productions, Planetarthur.com, Hubert Productions, PAF Productions, Société Miss France/Miss Europe, La Société du Spectacle, and La Boîte 2 Prod.

In 2010, Arthur Essebag created Satisfaction – The Television Agency, through which he produced and hosted Ce Soir Avec Arthur, first on the Comédie channel and then on TF1 (2010-2013), along with a range of other programmes: En Route Pour… (2011 et 2012), Arthur et les Incollables (2011), Des talents à Couper le Souffle (2011), Vendredi Tout Est Permis (2011), Le 31 Tout est Permis (2012), En Musique Tout est Permis (2013), Les Z’Awards (2014), Rock’n Roll Circus (2015), Stars Sous Hypnose (2014), Diversion (2017), Pas De Ça Entre Nous (2017), Les Touristes (2018), 3615 Code Arthur et Jarry (2018).

Satisfaction – The Television Agency also produced the programmes Stand Up TV, aired on Comédie+ in 2012, Claudia Tagbo & Co – le Grand Gala de l’Humour on France 4 (2013), Canapé Quiz presented by Arnaud Tsamere on TMC (2014), Ronde de Nuit on France 2 presented by Stéphane Bern (2015), Les 40 ans de l’INA on TF1, presented by Alessandra Sublet (2016), Deux Heures de Rires et d’Émotions on France 2, presented by Bruno Guillon and Stéphane Bern (2019), Deux Heures de Rires et de Direct on France 2, presented by Bruno Guillon and Stéphane Bern (2020), Stars à Nu, presented by Alessandra Sublet and Chris Marques (2020).

In 2012 Arthur created the Serenity Fiction company, which produced more than 300 episodes of Au Nom de la Vérité, a scripted Reality TV show broadcast on TF1, as well as Five Stars Publishing (A World Publishing), a music publishing company.

In 2017 Satisfaction acquired Ah! Production, an audiovisual production company founded by Antoine Henriquet in 2009 which is made up of three subsidiaries. Ah! Div produces non-scripted and variety shows (La Villa des Cœurs Brisés, La Bataille des Couples, Mamans & Célèbres) for French and international channels,

Ah! Doc specialises in documentaries (La Folle Histoire de…), and Ah! Corp in corporate videos.

The year 2019 marked a second turning point for AWPG with the acquisition of We Events, an influential digital marketing agency, and of the audiovisual production companies La Grosse Equipe and Enibas by Satisfaction.

La Grosse Equipe was created in 2005 by Thibaut Vales, Jeremy Michalak and Zumeo. It specialises in the creation of original formats for non-scripted and variety shows as well as Reality TV (Les Anges, Friends Trip…).

Enibas is a global media production company created in April 2008 by Nicolas Hélias and Frédéric Francès (Météo à la Carte, Tout Compte Fait…).

The group is constantly evolving with the creation of new subsidiaries and activities. The Ma Génération company has since late 2017 been running the Wada7 project, the leading social media for Arab youth which boasts more than 12 million subscribers around the world.

ALEF ONE is an independent production company founded in 2018 by Nora Melhli and Arthur Essebag. ALEF ONE develops and produces series and films for French and international markets.

July 2020 marks a new stage in the growth of Satisfaction Group with the acquisition of the French operations of Sony Pictures Television; Sony Pictures Television France and Starling. These companies specialise in the production of game and entertainment programs for TF1, France Télévisions and M6 with emblematic shows such as “The Newlywed Game”, “Brainiest”, Who wants to be a millionaire?”, “Dragon’s Den”

At the same time, Satisfaction The Television Agency partnered with Sony Pictures Television to benefit from the exclusive access to its catalogue of non scriptedformats in France, and internationally from the power of its distribution network to export its formats.

STAGE:

Arthur started his stage career in 2005, with Arthur en Vrai, a self-penned one-man show directed by Isabelle Nanty. The show was enjoyed by more than 100,000 spectators as it toured across France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada.

A new theatrical adventure began in 2007 when he revived the role of Pierre Brochant opposite Dany Boon in Francis Veber’s iconic play Le Diner de Cons. The play was seen by more than 180,000 people in Paris.

A second one-man show, iShow, written and played by Arthur and directed by Josée Forestier, was born in September 2008 and continued until November 2011.

AW produced Arthur en Vrai and the iShow and co-produced, along with Juste pour Rire, the sexy cabaret-circus and rock show La Clique.

Fred Bauer, through his company Manolou, brought his talent and artistic skills to strengthen AW’s entertainment division in 2011. Together they produced a host of shows:

Crazy: a one-woman show played by Claudia Tagbo, directed by Fabrice Eboué, written by Claudia Tagbo and Fabrice Eboué.

Comment épouser un milliardaire: a one-woman show written, performed and directed by Audrey Vernon.

Marx et Jenny: a one-woman show written, performed and directed by Audrey Vernon.

Amour sur Place ou à Emporter: played by Noom Diawara and Amelle Chahbi, written by Amelle Chahbi, Noom Diawara and Fabrice Eboué, directed by Fabrice Eboué.

Tout public…ou Pas: a one-man show written by Florent Peyre, and directed by Clair Jaz.

1ère Consultation: a one-man show played by Issa Doumbia, directed by Papy, and written by Kakoumbe.

Mytho: a one-woman show played by Ariane Brodier, directed by Jarry.

Since 2018, AW has been the sole producer of the following:

Lucky: a one-woman show played by Claudia Tagbo, directed by Marie Guibourt, written by Claudia Tagbo, Grand Ghana and Marie Guibourt.

1ère Consultation: a one-man show by Issa Doumbia, directed by Papy and written by Kakoumbe.

One: a one-man show by Cartman, directed by David Salles, written by Cartman and Julien Schmidt.

Inclassable: a one-man show by Tony Saint Laurent, directed by Cecile Sellam and written by Tony Saint Laurent.

Gus Illusioniste: a magic show directed by Gus and Clément Naslin.

FILM:

Arthur in 2006 founded Serenity Films Company, which went on to produce the following films:

Cyprien in 2008, starring Elie Semoun, Catherine Deneuve, Léa Drucker, Laurent Stocker, Vincent Desagnat, directed by David Charhon, written by Elie Semoun, Romain Lévy and Benjamin Guedj (released 02/25/2008).

Les Tuche in 2010, co-produced with Pathé and Eskwad, starring Jean-Paul Rouve, Isabelle Nanty, Claire Nadeau, directed by Olivier Baroux, script by Philippe Mechelen, dialogue by Chantal Lauby (released 07/01/2011).

In the US, via the Vendôme Investments company, Arthur produced Source Code, directed by Duncan Jones, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan (released 03/11/2011), and Larry Crowne written, directed and played by Tom Hanks, with Julia Roberts and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (released 06/27/2011).

Judith ABOULHEIR has been at Arthur’s side since the AWPG Group was founded and is currently Chief Executive Officer of Satisfaction.

She started her career as a production assistant at Alexandre Films, the company run by Alexandre Arcady and Diane Kurys. She most notably worked on the production of feature films including Pour Sacha, Le Grand Pardon 2, Après l’amour, La Baule les Pins.

After working with them for three years, she began co-hosting, along with Stéphane Tapie, a television show for young people on TF1 called Y a pas d’lézard. She also co-presented Ça me dit…et Vous? with Stéphane on TF1, and coordinated production for the show.

She joined Endemol France in 2000 as a PA to Arthur. She followed him in his new adventure within AWPG, of which she is today the director and manager.

After a Masters in finance and business administration at Paris-Dauphine University, Anne began her career in 1997 at Canal+ Group in their new media business unit as head of programme acquisitions for the innovative digital TV channel C:. She moved in 2000 to Game One, the video game television channel, to drive its expansion as manager of French and international development. Four years later she joined Endemol France Group as General Secretary to oversee business and M&A activities and to manage its operational activities and subsidiaries.

In 2018 she turned to scripted content when she joined independent producer Make It Happen Studio to work alongside founder Sydney Gallonde on the development and structuring of the firm’s international activities.

Anne, whose entrepreneurial spirit and international experience has enhanced her career in every job she has held, joined Satisfaction in April 2020 as COO. She thrives in fast-moving environments.

Jacqueline JOBLIN joined Satisfaction at its creation in August 2010. She holds the position of Managing Director and Director of Productions of the group.

She previously worked as Deputy Managing Director at Starling (Sony Group), where she spent 10 years.

Jacqueline has worked on a wide variety of productions throughout her career, notching up credits in game and variety shows, reality TV, and documentaries such as Qui Veut Gagner des Millions, Le Maillon Faible, Qui Veut Epouser Mon Fils, Le Grand Concours, Les Grands Tests, Les Minikeums, Double Jeu, Frou-Frou, Faut pas Rêver, and Fort Boyard.

Antoine founded Ah! Production and has been at its helm since 2009. He has created original formats such as Tahiti Quest (broadcast on Gulli), La Villa des Cœurs Brisés, Mamans et Célèbres (TFX), and the documentary series Les Folles Histoires (C8).

After graduating from the American School of Paris and taking a degree at the Sorbonne, he began his career in the industry along with Pascale Breugnot when Ego Production was set up in 2000.

Antoine is now an associate of Arthur at Satisfaction. He also chairs the production company La Grosse Equipe.

Nicolas is a specialist in documentaries and magazine programmes. He ran the Union Libre programme for five years on France 2 channel and was also in charge of 20h10 Pétantes on Canal+. He was Magazine and Documentary Director at TF1 for four years until 2008.

ENIBAS PRODUCTIONS was created in 2008 by Nicolas HÉLIAS and Frédéric FRANCÈS.

Nora MELHLI built her career as a producer both in France and abroad. She is a former high-performance athlete (1,500m athletics) and speaks French, English, Spanish, and Moroccan Arabic. She joined the international co-production department of Dune Productions in 1998. She moved to the Lagardère group in 2002, and partnered with Jérôme Minet at Studio International before selling it to Telfrance five years later. During this period Nora produced films and mini-series, in collaboration with several European countries, which were shot in France and abroad. They include Pepe Carvalho, Colette, Bel Ami and L’Affaire Villemin.

In France she created the original drama divisions for two of the largest international groups in Europe: for Endemol in 2007 and then for Shine in 2012. Her production credits for them include Yann Piat, Chronique d’un Assassinat for Canal+, the series The Tunnel in co-production with Canal+ and Sky UK, and Malaterra for FranceTV,  which was adapted from the British series Broadchurch.

Nora joined Altice Group in 2016 as Creative Director of Original Programmes and developed the group’s international cinema and series strategy. She co-produced the series The Medici, Riviera, Britannia and Tin Star for SVOD and for the group’s various channels.

In 2018 she joined forces with Jacques Arthur Essebag to co-found ALEF ONE. Since then she has been developing and producing content for French and international markets, notably films and series such as Flight MH370 and Water Wars.

From September 2011 to December 2013, Nora was Vice-President of the Innovation Support Fund at the CNC (National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image). She is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the “Festival Séries Mania”.

Nora was elected president of the SPI audiovisual board (Independent Producers Union) in May of 2021.