Jocelyn (Jocelyn Hattab) was born on December 5th, 1945 to a modest family in Tunisia, where he spent his earliest years and attended elementary school, Jocelyn displayed an early interest in entertainment. In 1956, when Tunisia won freedom from French rule, he moved with his family to Paris for political and religious reasons. There he continued his studies and thrived at the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. Leaving school early, he became director at an important light opera theater, “Le Theatre du Chatelet” at just 17 years of age. (At the time, the Chatelet theater was the largest stage in the world, with three elevators and a depth of 120 meters).
Following this venture in the theater, Jocelyn became interested in film. By 1965, he had managed to become assistant to such noted directors as Roger Vadim, Anton Litvak, Andre Cayatte, Denis delle Patelliere, Pierre Sisser, he works with Jean Gabin, Fernandel, Omar Sharif, and Peter O’Toole.
At the same time, he pursued other interests, including his first foray into television, becoming production coordinator of the first French broadcast of “Games Without Frontiers.” He also tried his hand at other jobs, including car dealer, gas station attendant, and clothing salesman.
Radio followed, where he became involved in a variety of programs as host, writer and director. Here he founded a group of musical performers “Michel Fugain and Big Bazar”, with whom he traveled to the television networks. In 1974, while with this group, he had his first experience with Italian television (Tele Monte Carlo, then based in Monaco and at the time broadcasting partially in french).
He decided to stick around at Tele Monte Carlo and tried his hand at a variety of jobs: programming executive, producer and director of individual shows; before that, lighting technician, video mixer, and even spinning disks before the broadcast day began.
In fact, he became a DJ for the program “Un peu d’amour, d’amitié et… beaucoup de musique” (A little firendly, love and lots of music) a top-of-the-charts style music show which contained a game-show element for people watching from home – at unique component at the time. The show became his first important hit for Italian TV, and it made him a celebrity, enough so to be picked by RAI to host another music broadcast. “Discoring”, which debuted in the 1980/81 season, became a big hit.
Moving past his role as a DJ, he dedicated himself to creating and hosting original television programming, including 1983’s memorable “Treasure hunt” (which sold to 17 countries and was created along with his mentor Jacques Antoine), “The Millionaire” and “The Hitman”, “Everything’s for sale … almost”, “I’m Counting on you”, “Manhunt”, “What Is It? What Is It?“,”Domenica In”, the famous “The Royal game of the goose” (sold to 42 countries), the captivating “If I were … Sherlock Holmes”, “A dog’s life”, and “The Traveling salesman game”.
This long series of successes included periods in which he worked outside Italy with networks in the U.S., France, Spain (where he created the innovative “La Noche de los castillos” (The Night of castles), Germany and South America. 1998 marked an important return to RAI with “Break a leg” and “Wolf hunt” … both immediate hits. In 1999, he ended his long run with “Games Without Frontiers,” staying on as general consultant. That same year he created and directed “7 for one.”
Clearly an innovative and multi-talented artist with rich experience and a fluency in multi-national broadcasts, Jocelyn’s shows have always distinguished themselves by the originality of their premise, their dynamic rhythm, and their unique ability to capture and maintain a vast and loyal viewership.
Dedicating himself in these last years largely to creating and directing (rather than hosting) his programs – most recently “Domenika In” and “Ask the question”.
In 2004 he’s returned on screen to host his quiz show “The Duel”.
In 2007 he directed the “Musical Il Conte di Montecristo“.
In 2012 he directed the “Opera L'Apocalisse“ by Francesco Marchetti and Silvia Pantano.
From 2010 to 2015 he was the director of “Chain reaction“ program of Rai 1 and Tv Mania for Rai 2.
In 2018 he began his partnership with the journalist, writer and PhD Alessandra Chianese, with whom he writes new formats and modernizes some broadcasts of a few years ago to propose their promotion. In 2019 he married his partner Alessandra Chianese in the Principality of Monaco, who thus became Alessandra Hattab.