Francisco Randez

Francisco Randez is a French - Canadian fashion model with a Spanish background. He was born and raised in the city of Montréal, in the French-speaking province of Québéc, and began to model at the age of 20.

He provided the face model for Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Ezio Auditore da Firenze and Desmond Miles throughout the Assassin's Creed series.

Before modeling, he worked as a bartender (which may have given inspiration for Desmond's background) as well as in his grandmother's corner store as a teenager. As well as being a model, Francisco is also the lead singer of the band called Moudjik.

Randez has been modeling since 1998. He is 6'3" (1.85 m) tall and has brown eyes and brown hair. He has been featured in the campaigns of some well-known fashion designers and brands, including Jean Paul Gaultier and Benetton. He is interested in martial arts and combat sports, and had been boxing for nearly ten years before switching to track and field. He has been running for several years now, specializing in 100 and 200 meters events.

Although Francisco took on a career in music and modeling, he has not forgotten about his enthusiasm for sports and the human machine, which drove him to finish a degree in massage therapy at Guijeck Institute in Montreal. Francisco has also participated in naturopathic medicine studies, and has always been passionate about health and natural ways ever since his childhood.

Through his many various modeling gigs, Francisco has landed on multiple jobs on television, radio and magazine interviews. He was very interested in media communications and began to give it serious thoughts. He started as a journalist for MontrealTV and worked on a television program called CoverGuy (which aired in October 2008) as well as spent a month and a half long trip in Panama to record a 13-episode length travel adventure program named Aventuras Panama. The show aired September 2009 on Evasion.

Work in Assassin's Creed
According to Francisco, the casting department of Ubisoft found him via his modeling agency, Folio. Ubisoft had been searching for "a face with Mediterranean features to return the character [Altaïr] of the time of the Crusades." At the first meeting, they set up a photo session, where they took images of Randez's face from every possible angle in order to render a 3D model. At the second meeting, they asked him to portray simple expressions, such as joy and anger.

Francisco says that he is fascinated by cinema and that having his face associated with the main character in a video game revolutionizes the genre and has given him much pleasure, though not really any other benefits. Ezio, Altair and Desmond are modeled after Francisco.