Before landing his breakout role in 2011's The Intouchables, Omar was a comedian who had a long-running TV show on Canal+ with his comedy partner, Fred Testot. When he was approached by directors Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache to star in a short film back in 2000, he had no professional acting experience, and as he told Collider during a February 2013 interview, he's still not sure why they approached him.
"Maybe it's a gift from God," Omar said when asked how the role came to be. "They trust me and they came to me and said, 'Do you want to act in our movie?' It was for a short movie. I said, 'I'm not really an actor,' and they said, 'We are not really directors.' So, we started like that. It was funny. They are very talented. They are very good writers and they are able to write the truth, so it was easy for me to act because it's easy for an actor to act the reality. I never took any drama school, so it's just life school." He then went on to work with Éric and Olivier on several more projects, including The Intouchables.