Hadj Smain is an Algerian actor, director, producer. He takes his first acting steps in Theatre under the directing of Henri Cordreaux, a French Drama Professor and playwright. He joins the Opera of Paris and becomes among other "Rookies", a stage aide to Jean Vilar, one of France's greatest theater comedians and directors.

Later on in his career, Hadj Smain would act ...in a multitude of films, amongst which are "Chronicle of the years of fire" (Winner of the Golden Palm at Cannes 1975), "Les enfants de Novembre" ("November's children" about the Algerian Revolution of the 1950s), "Patrouille a l'est" ("The east's platoon"), "Cri de Pierre" (Screaming rock"), and most importantly "The battle of Algiers" as a supervising producer (uncredited).

A founding member of the National School of Drama in Algiers, Hadj Smain teaches acting for many years then becomes a theater director throughout the 1980s and '90s, after which he goes back to acting for both film and television.