Yves Jacques’s career as both a stage and film actor took him from his hometown of Québec City to Montréal, then to Paris, where he has since performed. He has appeared in five films by Quebec director Denys Arcand, including The Decline of the American Empire, Jesus of Montréal, and The Barbarian Invasions, as well as seven films by French director Claude Miller, including La chambre des magiciennes, La petite Lili and Voyez comme ils dansent. His reputation then continued to grow with numerous appearances in films and theatre productions in France and Quebec. On stage, he toured the globe for almost ten years, performing in both the French and English versions of two plays by Robert Lepage, Far Side of the Moon (as of 2001) and The Anderson Project (as of 2007). His collaboration with Lepage prompted Luc Bondy, then director of the Odéon–Théâtre de l’Europe in Paris, to offer him a role alongside Isabelle Huppert in Marivaux’s Les fausses confidences. Jacques would then appear with the same cast in Bondy’s final feature film, a screen adaptation of the play produced by and broadcast on ARTE. Jacques has had the privilege of working with other filmmakers such as Xavier Dolan, who directed Laurence Anyways, Jean-Paul Rappenneau in Belles Familles, Olivier Dahan in his biopic Grace of Monaco, Martin Scorsese, for whom he acted in The Aviator, and André Forcier in La beauté du monde.

Since 2018, Jacques has made regular appearances in theatrical creations by Mathieu Quesnel. In February 2001, Yves Jacques was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. Since 2009, he has been an Officer of the Order of Canada for his performances in theatre, television and film productions, in Canada and abroad.