Riss was born in Melun on September 20, 1966. He is a journalist and cartoonist, director of the newspaper Charlie Hebdo. He worked at La Grosse Bertha in 1991 where he met Charb, Luz, Cabu, Philippe Val and the entire team that would run Charlie Hebdo from the following year. Since 2009, he has shared the direction of the newspaper with Charb. On January 7, 2015, he was seriously injured during the terrorist attack against Charlie Hebdo, in which almost his entire editorial staff was riddled with bullets.