Bruno Raffaelli was an active member of the Théâtre d’Essai d’Aix-en-Provence before enrolling at the Conservatoire national d’art dramatique in 1971, where he followed classes by Robert Manuel and Pierre Debauche. Upon graduation, he was engaged by the Jeune théâtre national, then joined the Comédie-Française as a pensionnaire on the 17th of December 1994. He made his debut in the role of Miller in Friedrich Schiller’s Intrigue and Love under the direction of Marcel Bluwal. Since the 1st of January 1998, he has been the 500th sociétaire where he has played under the direction of renowned directors, such as: Jean-Louis Benoit in Eugène Labiche’s Moi, Molière’s Les Fourberies de Scapin and Corneille’s Le Menteur; Jacques Lassalle in Figaro Gets a Divorce (Figaro divorce) by Ödön von Horváth; Daniel Mesguich in Jacques Offenbach’s La Vie parisienne; Alain Françon in Chekhov’s Three Sisters and Goldoni’s La Trilogie de la villégiature.

In 2012, Bruno Raffaelli performed the role of Créon in Anouilh’s Antigone under the direction of Marc Paquien and that of Don Ruy Gomez de Silva in Victor Hugo’s Hernani directed by Nicolas Lormeau in 2013. Three years later, he participated in creating Karl Kraus’s The Last Days of Mankind by David Lescot. In 2017, he was cast in Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui as staged by Katharina Thalbach, and in Georges Feydeau’s L’Hôtel du Libre-Échange by Isabelle Nanty.

Before becoming part of the Comédie-Française, Bruno Raffaelli was directed by Jean-Pierre Miquel in two plays by Max Frisch: La Grande Muraille and Don Juan ou l’amour de la géométrie, as well as by Jacques Rosner in Marivaux’s La Double Inconstance and Philippe Madral’s La Manifestation. At the 1979 Festival d’Avignon, the Czech director Otomar Krejča entrusted him with the role of Alexandre in Alfred de Musset’s Lorenzaccio. Jérôme Savary, whom he had first encountered at the Grand Magic Circus in the 1980s, directed him in Molière’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme; Superdupont ze Show by Marcel Gotlib and Jérôme Savary; Bye bye Show biz by Jérôme Savary; Marcel Pagnol’s La Femme du boulanger (beside Michel Galabru); Astérix after Albert Uderzo and René Gosciny to create the role of Obelix for the stage; and in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Bruno Raffaelli’s filmography includes: Roger Andrieux's L’Amour en herbe; Sam Karmann's Kennedy et moi; Roger Planchon's Louis, enfant roi; Didier Kaminka’s Ma femme me quitte; Francis Girod's Terminale; Cédric Klapisch’s Ce qui nous lie; and Guillaume Gallienne’s Maryline. Director Bertrand Tavernier cast him four times, for La Vie et rien d’autre, L627, Laissez-passer and Quai d’Orsay. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi first directed him in The Three Sisters (2015) and later in Les Estivants (2018).

Bruno Raffaelli is Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters (Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres).