Damien Bonnard began his career at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts. When he arrived in Paris, he took drama classes, took part in training courses and then began working with film school students. He played his first roles in feature films by Bertrand Blier, Virgil Vernier, Brigitte Sy, Delphine and Muriel Coulin and Sylvain Desclous. In 2016, with Alain Guiraudie, he got his first leading role in Rester Vertical, for which he was nominated for the César Espoirs, and won the Prix Lumière De La Révélation Masculine 2016.

Since then he has played the lead role in Les Misérables and Les Intranquilles, for which he was nominated in the Best Actor category at the 2020 and 2022 Césars. In 2023, Ilan Klipper's feature film Le Processus de Paix will be released in June, and he will also star in Brigitte Sy's Le Bonheur est pour Demain and Vincent Perez's Une affaire d'honneur alongside Doria Tillier, Roschdy Zem and Guillaume Gallienne.