is she famous and popular in the US?

I don't know about america, but she has some funs in china. Two big goup of her chinese funs(not so big though):
http://group.mtime.com/MelanieLaurent/
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?ie=utf-8&kw=%E6%A2%85%E6%8B%89%E5%B0%BC%E7%BD%97%E5%85%B0

Thank you for your answer I didn't know there were Chinese who watch French movies (or at least movies with French actors/actresses^^).

Come on! I mean Amelie, A Very Long Engagement, red ，white，blue, Le Hussard sur le toit，Les adoptés，Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas， Les amants du Pont-Neuf ，Nikita ，A Bout de Souffle，Camille Claudel ，Adolphe de Benjamin Constant，Jeux d'enfants....I can go on and on，to most chinese, besides chinese movies and hollywood, movie means French, I'm not kidding.
And actress... oh my,Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Adjani, Melanie Laurent，Sophie Marceau，Marion Cotillard...I never been to French, but just by seen your movies and actresses,I think you guys(suppose you are a guy) are so lucky.

She's fairly famous in the US now. Maybe her name isn't well known, but her face is. I know who she is because of her role in Inglorious Basterds.

Ok thanks of course I know all these movies and actresses but I couldn't guess if they were famous abroad or not^^ China is a great country, long live China.

she's fairly unknown in the us as of now, but that is gradually changing. to the common movie fan she's 'the girl in inglorious basterds'. that being said, she was great in 'beginners' and had a big role in 'now you see me'. 5 years from now I'm sure she'll be a super star.

Ok I think she is a good actress but everytime she plays in an american movie I don't find her convincing at all (and yet I like the movie but for me she kind of "ruins it").
In "Inglorious Basterds" her performance was poor compared to the rest of the cast, same goes for "now you see me" (but the whole female cast was bad in this movie, they should have casted better actresses seriously...). Too bad cause imo these movies are actually excellent (IB) and quite good (now you see me), and too bad cause ML is actually good in French movies. Maybe she doesn't have what it takes (yet) to act in "big" movies. As a French I got to say it's really embarassing to see her in american movies, cause she can't compare to actors like Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Diane Kruger, Christopher Waltz etc... for the movies I just quoted.

Same goes for Marion Cotillard who can be very good in French movies (oscar for "la môme" aka "la vie en rose, also very good in "rust and bone") but can't act in Inception (once again a very good movie) or batman TDKR (very good too), Contagion (ok movie) or Public Ennemies (yet I didn't like this one).

I don't know if my impression is clear, anyway I don't mean to bash these actresses I think they'll 'grow' and improve their confidence when they play with a cast who clearly outshines them (ML or MC are the stars in French productions, but aren't in american movies and they got to deal with that and deliver a fine performance).

This is surprising to read, because I consider her to be one of the best things about, "Inglorious Basterds," and that is saying a lot considering the long list of amazing performances in that movie. Melanie Laurent and Christopher Waltz owned that movie as far as I'm concerned.

I am not a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino movies in general, because the violence and gore tend to be over the top and I can't handle it. But I have found that he is a master of subtle and silent tension, and French actors and actresses, (it seems to me) are able communicate feelings by simple facial expressions and it is beautiful. American talent seems to rely mostly on the words written for them to get the same across. This is what has made me both love French cinema and become incredibly frustrated with subtitles because I feel like I miss so much.

I doubt many if any of the people I know could tell you who Melanie Laurent is, but I absolutely adore her.