Marie S'Infiltre: Who is the French YouTuber who crashed Chanel's Paris Fashion Week show?

Marie Benoliel, 28, previously went viral with a video about harassment and the #MeToo movement

Marie S’Infiltre, the French woman who crashed Chanel’s Paris Fashion Week show, is a seasoned comedian who previously went viral with a video about the #MeToo movement.

The 28-year-old, whose real name is Marie Benoliel, made headlines on Tuesday after managing to sneak onto the Chanel runway during the French label’s show, only for Gigi Hadid to give her the boot.

Benoliel, a graduate of the prestigious Sciences Po university in Paris (an alma mater she shares with several French presidents including Emmanuel Macron), studied theatre at the Cours Florent, a high-profile drama school in Paris, before creating her YouTube channel.

She now has 228,000 subscribers on the platform, where her oldest video dates back to three years ago.

Benoliel has produced skits on a variety of topics from the French far-right to the Yellow Vests and the #MeToo movement. One of her videos on the latter topic went viral in November 2017 and has been watched more than 348,000 times.

However, Benoliel’s nickname, “Marie S’Infiltre”, translates to “Marie crashes [an event]”, which is precisely the skill that has resulted in her newfound worldwide viral fame.

The comedian, who has toured at the Parisian Théâtre les Feux de La Rampe and will resume performing on 20 September, shared a video last week in which she crashed the fashion show of the French lingerie and clothing brand Etam.

Gigi Hadid approaches prankster Marie Benoliel aka Marie S'Infiltre and escorts her off the catwalk during the Chanel show at Paris Fashion Week. (Photo by David Fisher/REX)

She told L’importante.fr that the stunt inspired her decision to attempt the same feat during Chanel’s show because some people suggested that Etam was in on the joke, which she denies.

“My infiltration at Etam went so well, it was so easy that some thought it was rigged and that I had permission to do it,” she said. “Are you kidding me? So I wanted to try the impossible with the most prestigious show on Earth, Chanel.”

Benoliel wouldn’t reveal exactly how she managed to sneak onto Chanel’s runway, though she jokingly compared gaining access to the show without an invitation to trying to cross the Berlin Wall.

As for gaining access to the runway, she said it was crucial to start slow in order not to appear suspicious.

Benoliel said she found it fun to infiltrate fashion events because the industry has a tendency to take itself too seriously, and she views her pranks as a way to relax the atmosphere a bit.