Alexandre Pavloff followed theatre studies at the École supérieure d'art dramatique de Paris before training at the Paris Conservatory in classes by Daniel Mesguich and Jacques Lassalle. Alexandre Pavloff has been pensionnaire of the Comédie-Française since the 1st of June 1997, and became the 506th sociétaire of the Company on the 1st of January 2002.

Having played most notably in Les Fourberies de Scapin and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme by Jean-Louis Benoit, Georges Dandin by Catherine Hiegel, L’École des maris by Thierry Hancisse, The Miser (L’Avare) by Andrei Serban, The Imaginary Invalid (Le Malade imaginaire) by Claude Stratz, Amphitryon by Anatoli Vassiliev, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac by Philippe Adrien, Alexandre Pavloff has often been associated with Molière’s plays. He has however been equally as convincing in much less comical roles, such as Nero in Racine’s Britannicus and Rodrigue in Corneille’s Le Cid, both directed by Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman; Ferdinand in Shakespeare The Tempest by Daniel Mesguich; Yasha in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard by Alain Françon; Ergaste in Marivaux’s Les Sincères by Jean Liermier; Daniel in Labiche’s Le Voyage de Monsieur Perrichon by Julie Brochen; and Maigreux in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor by Andrés Lima.

In 2010, Alexandre Pavloff played the Emperor in Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes directed by Jacques Allaire. The following year, he played Dorante in Marivaux’s Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard under the direction of Galin Stoev. He assumed this character again in 2013 in Que d’amour!, a movie adaptation of the play by Valérie Donzelli for Arte Television. A significant part of his career has been dedicated to contemporary authors. He played in Le Début de l’A. as written and directed by Pascal Rambert; in L’Espace furieux written and directed by Valère Novarina; in Pur written and directed by Lars Norén, in Weekend Quartet written and directed Gao Xingjian, and in Tony Kushner’s Homebody / Kabul by Jorge Lavelli. In 2015, he played in Gorky’s Summerfolk directed by Gérard Desarthe, and then in Strindberg’s The Father directed by Arnaud Desplechin. Denis Podalydès entrusted him with playing Jeppo Liveretto in Victor Hugo’s Lucrezia Borgia, while Claude Mathieu had him singing in Cabaret Léo Ferré. At the Avignon Festival in July 2016, Ivo van Hove cast him along with other members of the Company in The Damned (Les Damnés), an adaptation of Luchino Visconti’s screenplay. The show was taken over by the Salle Richelieu. In 2017, he reunited with writer and director Pascal Rambert for Une vie, a play created for the Company.