Claire Chazal is a French journalist, writer and presenter.
She began her career in 1980 as a freelance reporter for Europe 1, L’Usine nouvelle and L’Expansion, then joined Le Quotidien de Paris in 1981 before moving to the economics section of Les Échos.
An iconic figure in the audiovisual scene, she was appointed senior economics reporter at France 2 in 1988 and presented the weekend TV news on TF1 from 1991 to 2015. As TF1’s news editor in 1997, she hosted election night coverage and interviewed French presidents.
She then hosted Entrée libre on France 5 (2016–2019), Passage des arts on France 2 from 2019, and Le Grand Échiquier on France 3 from 2021 onwards. On Radio Classique, she presented L’Interview de Claire Chazal from 2006 to 2018, interviewing cultural figures.
She has starred in films and television films, most often playing herself, collaborating with directors such as Alain Berberian, Danièle Thompson, Régis Wargnier, Kad Merad and Michel Denisot.
As an author, she has published Balladur, a biography (1993), the novels L’Institutrice (1997) – adapted into an award-winning television film – and À quoi bon souffrir ? (2001), as well as the autobiographical work Puisque tout passe (2018).
She hosts Public Sénat’s weekly literary programme, Au Bonheur des livres.
In Le Parisien Week-End, she writes a weekly column entitled ‘Claire Chazal’s cultural week’.
On 31 December 2003, she was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and in 2022 Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.
