Nicolas Vadot was born in Carshalton, England. His father was French, his mother British. At age 17 he moved to Brussels and studied visual communication and comics at the École de Recherches Graphiques. Between 1994 and 1996 he worked behind the counter of the film company UGC De Brouckère in Brussels.
On 10 December 1993 he published his first cartoon in the weekly Le Vif, the Belgian version of L'Express. The same year two of his drawings were placed in Charlie Hebdo, albeit in the readers' letters section, so they didn't have to pay him. From 1999 on, Vadot received his own section in this magazine, titled 'La Semaine de Vadot'. His signature character in Le Vif is the little green cat Kiko, whom he always hides somewhere in his drawings. Many readers have taken delight in trying to spot the feline.
Along with scenarist Olivier Guéret he started the 'Norbert l'Imaginaire' series, which appeared in the collection Troisième Degré Lombard from June 2001. Between 2001 and 2002 the series won the award for 'Best Debut' at the Comics Festivals of Antibes, Sierre and Middelkerke. His work could be read in Cash Magazine between 2004 and 2007 and since October 2007 in the economic magazine L'Echo. Vadot also published in Trends-Tendances, Le Soir Sports, The Bulletin and Pan. He holds both the Belgian as Australian nationality, after moving to Australia in 2005.
He was one of many Belgian cartoonists to make special cartoons and comics for Gilles Dal’s book "België, et cetera" (Van Halewyck, 2016), a funny look at the history of Belgium. He and Cécile Bertrand were interviewed in Roel Daenen's book 'Het Is Maar Om Te Lachen. Hoe Cartoonisten De Wereld Veranderen' (Polis, 2016), which collects interviews with Belgian cartoonists regarding censorship, in the light of the 2015 terrorist attacks at Charlie-Hebdo's headquarters.
He is one of several Belgian cartoonists who are a member of the collective and website The Cartoonist, established by Marec, where Belgian cartoonists make their archived and new work available to the public.
At the Press Cartoon Belgium contest he won second prize twice in a row, namely in 2011 and 2012. In 2011 he won third prize at the Press Cartoon Europe. His album 'Imagination: 1 / Reason: 0' won 'Best Debut Dalbum' (2001) at the Festival of Antibes, 'Best Debut Album' (2002) at the Festival of Middelkerke and the 'Discovery Award' (2002) at the Festival of Sierre.
Between 16 May and 10 July 2013 he was one of several Flemish comic artists to exhibit original artwork during the 'Wereld van de Strips in Originelen' ('The World of Comics in Originals') exhibition in the Flemish Parliament in Brussels. The exhibition, organized by art critic and museum curator Jan Hoet and politician Dany Vandenbossche, later gained controversy when N-VA politician Jan Peumans objected to a French-language speech balloon on the official expo poster. Since the posters were already printed, the speech balloon was simply blanked. Numerous participating comic artists protested against this censorship, with several, including Vejo, asking to have their own cartoons and comics to be removed from the expo.
Nicolas Vadot is vice-chairman of Cartooning for Peace.
