Following his training at the Institut national des Arts in Bamako and at the École nationale des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre in Paris, Bakary Sangaré entered the Comédie-Française in 2002 and made his debut as Papa in Marie Ndiaye’s Papa doit manger under the direction of André Engel.

The following season, he played Antonio in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will directed by Andrzej Seweryn, and the Lion in La Fontaine’s Fables directed by Robert Wilson. Marcel Bozonnet entrusted him with the role of Orgon in_Tartuffe_ by Molière, while Guillaume Gallienne directed him in On the High Road by Chekhov. Muriel Mayette-Holtz cast him in Return to the Desert by Bernard-Marie Koltès and later in La Dispute by Marivaux, while Jean Liermier cast him as Diomède in Kleist’s Penthesilea. In 2008, he played Titus in Racine’s Bérénice by Faustin Linyekula and Bartholo in Beaumarchais’ The Marriage of Figaro by Christophe Rauck. For Andrés Lima, he embodied the Innkeeper in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, while Lee Breuer entrusted him with playing Steve Hubbell in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Éric Génovèse wanted him to play in Erzuli Dahomey, déesse de l'amour by Jean-René Lemoine.

He was Abdo and the Governer in Rituals of Signs and Transformations by Saadallah Wannous directed by Sulayman Al-Bassam and carried the title role in Shakespeare’s Othello under the direction of Léonie Simaga, Tardiveau in Eugène Labiche’s Italian Straw Hat (Un chapeau de paille d'Italie) by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, the Mother and Claude in The Three Little Pigs written and directed by Thomas Quillardet. Bakary Sangaré also played in Triptyque du naufrage: Lampedusa Snow written and staged by Lina Prosa. In 2015, he reunited with Éric Ruf, who had previously directed him in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, to be cast as Friar John in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In 2016, he worked with Christiane Jatahy in The Rules of the Game after a screenplay by Jean Renoir, as well as Katharina Thalbach in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht, and finally with Isabelle Nanty in The Free Exchange Hotel by George Feydeau. In 2017, Denis Podalydès cast him to play Silvestre in Molière’s Les Fourberies de Scapin.

His Portrait d'acteurhas been reveal during the first Nuit du jeu broadcasted on decembre 20, 2022. The interveiw is available on YouTube.

Bakary Sangaré has played in the following, among other pictures, Trouble Every Day by Claire Denis; Feeling (Les sentiments) and Let’s Dance! (Faut que ça danse !) by Noémie Lvovsky; The Lost Seamen (Les Marins perdus) by Claire Devers and in A Butterfly Kiss (Un baiser papillon) by Karine Silla-Perez. He could be seen in Peter Brook’s mini-series Mahabharata in 1990, and in Ça ne peut pas continuer comme ça, by Dominique Cabrera broadcast on French television in 2012.

He is a Knight in the Order of the Legion of Honour (Chevalier dans l'ordre de la Légion d'Honneur).

During the 2018/2019 season, Bakary Sangaré will be playing in Bertolt Brecht’s La Vie de Galilée by Éric Ruf, in the rerun of Molière’s Les Fourberies de Scapin by Denis Podalydès and in the rerun of Feydeau’s Free Exchange Hotel (L’Hôtel du Libre-Échange) by Isabelle Nanty.