Valentina Cervi (born 13 April 1976) is an Italian film and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

. Cervi was born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. She is the daughter of director

Tonino Cervi Tonino is an Italian and Spanish given name, surname or nickname. As a given name it is a diminutive form of Antonio in use in Italy, Spain, parts of the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, C ...

and granddaughter of actor

Gino Cervi Luigi Cervi (3 May 1901 – 3 January 1974), better known as Gino Cervi (), was an Italian actor. He was best known for portraying Peppone in a series of comedies based on the character ''Don Camillo'' (1952-1965), and police detective Jules ...

. Her mother is the Italian producer of Austrian-Hungarian origin Marina Gefter. Cervi started her acting career at age ten in Carlo Cotti's 1986 film ''Portami la luna''. She also played an English-language role in

Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films ''The Piano'' (1993) and '' The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for which she has received a tot ...

's 1996 '' The Portrait of a Lady''. One of her most acclaimed roles was the lead in the 1997 film '' Artemisia'', directed by

Agnès Merlet Agnès Merlet (born 4 January 1959) is a French film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vi ...

. It was loosely based on the painter Artemisia Gentileschi's life, but controversially portrayed the relationship between

Agostino Tassi Agostino Tassi (born Agostino Buonamici; 1578 – 1644) was an Italian landscape and seascape painter, who was convicted of raping Artemisia Gentileschi in 1612. Because he aspired to nobility he modified the details of his early life. Though h ...

(played by Miki Manojlović) and Artemisia as a passionate affair rather than as rape. In 2011, she appeared as Arianna in BBC TV's Italian detective mini-series ''

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

''. She also appeared as "Valentina" in Canale 5's series ''Distretto di Polizia'' in 2011. Cervi appeared as

Bertha Mason Bertha Antoinetta Rochester (née Mason) is a character in Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel ''Jane Eyre''. She is described as the violently insane first wife of Edward Rochester, who moved her to Thornfield Hall and locked her in a room on the ...

Cary Fukunaga Cary Joji Fukunaga (born July 10, 1977) is an American filmmaker. He first gained recognition for writing and directing the 2009 film '' Sin nombre'' and the 2011 adaptation of ''Jane Eyre''. He was the first director of partial East Asian des ...

's 2011 film adaptation of ''Jane Eyre''. She was cast as the ancient vampire Salome in the HBO television drama ''

True Blood ''True Blood'' is an American fantasy horror drama television series produced and created by Alan Ball. It is based on '' The Southern Vampire Mysteries'', a series of novels by Charlaine Harris. A reboot is currently in development. The ser ...

''. She is married to director Stefano Mordini and has two children, Margherita (b. 2013) and a son (b. 2016). She received the ''America Award'' of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2018.

Filmography

Films

Television

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cervi, Valentina 1976 births Living people 20th-century Italian actresses 21st-century Italian actresses Actresses from Rome Italian child actresses Italian film actresses Italian television actresses Italian stage actresses Italian people of Hungarian descent Italian people of Austrian descent