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Only son, Jean-Paul Rouve grew up in Dunkerque, and was introduced to the theater during his schooling. He took courses at the national drama center of Nord-Pas de Calais and founded an amateur theater troupe. After his baccalaureate, he left for Lille to study information and communication sciences. In 1989, thanks to one of his friends, Emmanuelle Lepoutre, he attended a course given by Isabelle Nanty in a theater school, the Cours Florent, and decided to stay in Paris to study comedy.

He was revealed to the general public in the Robins des Bois comic troupe during the 1990s.

He established himself during the 2000s as a recurring second role in French cinema, in different genres. Thus, he won the César for best male hope in 2003 for his performance in the historical drama Monsieur Batignole, by Gérard Jugnot, then was nominated for the César for best actor in a supporting role in 2005 for his incarnation of a lookalike of Michel. Polnareff in the comedy Podium, by Yann Moix. In 2006, he played a director of a summer camp in the comedy Nos jours bonheurs, by Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, before playing Louis Gassion in the biographical film La Môme (2007), by Olivier Dahan.

During the 2010s, he especially won the role of Jeff Tuche, in the series of successful comedies Les Tuche directed by Olivier Baroux. He is also pursuing a career as a director of films with a more dramatic sensitivity, with When I will be little (2012), Les Souvenirs (2014) and Lola et ses frères (2018).