Alina Serban

Alina Serban (born October 29, 1986) is a Roma film and theater actress and writer.

Serban is famous for writing and performing spectacles with social justice messages, against racism, sexism, homophobia and all forms of discrimination ^[1]

Biography

Alina Serban is born in 1986 in a Romanian Roma family in Bucharest, Romania. She is 8 years old when her parents lose their home and are forced to move to her father’s extended family. A few years later her mother goes to prison and Alina spends her teenage years in an orphanage from where she goes directly to the university. She will use her diaries from these years to write the early versions of I Declare at My Own Risk – Slumdog Roma and Two weeks, maximum one month, maybe six years,^[2] which she performs at the International Romani Art Festival in 2009 ^[3]

In 2011 Serban receives a scholarship and moves to London for a master’s program at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. The following year she receives the prize "Best Romanian Student in the UK” but she can’t afford the expenses associated with the trip from London to Edinburgh so she cannot pick up the prize in person.

In March 2014 the actress is invited at Street Child World Cup to give a speech in front of 2000 people at Royal Albert Hall ^[4]

In 2016 Alina Serban publishes the first Collection of Roma Fairy Tales in Romania, told by her aunt – Tanti Veta.

Currently she has projects in Romania, UK and Germany, including a film in which she will play the main character – a Roma boxer.

Studies

• 2011-2012 Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London (MA Theatre Lab program)
• 2009 Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (Open Arts program) ^[5]
• 2006-2009 National University of Theater and Film in Bucharest

Theatre

Alina Serban became known on the alternative theater scene of Bucharest after the performance I Declare at My Own Risk, a one-woman-show she had also written. The play, inspired by the autobiographical story of the actress,^[6] was performed in many European countries, including Romania, Hungary, France and Italy ^[7]

In 2013 Alina Serban performed I Declare at My Own Risk in Great Britain, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art – RADA Festival, followed by another performance at Tara Arts in 2014 ^[8]

While Living in London, in 2015, Alina Serban writes “Home”, a play that tells a story of different immigrants looking for a better life in the UK. The play has won “Stories of London” Rich Mix's competition ^[9]

By the end of 2015, Serban performs in “Roma-Sapiens” in Berlin and is invited to perform and present I Declare at My Own Risk at the Stockholm Literature Festival ^[10]

In 2016 Alina Serban writes, directs and performs in “The Great Shame”, a theater play that talks about 500 years of Roma slavery in the Romanian countries and in which she includes less known historical documents ^[11]

Other Projects

Cinema

Television

References

External links

• http://povestinespuse.eu/en/home/
• http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2770414/
• http://www.agencesimpson.fr/spip.php?article390
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7ZsuoLfy60