Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@riceissa
Last active February 15, 2017 08:07
Show Gist options
  • Star 0 You must be signed in to star a gist
  • Fork 0 You must be signed in to fork a gist
  • Save riceissa/3d49209faf670b618dfadf4fb5c4ce46 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save riceissa/3d49209faf670b618dfadf4fb5c4ce46 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.

Ingrid Bisu (born September 15, 1987) is a Romanian-German actress and producer. She's best known for her appearance in the drama Toni Erdmann (2016), which was nominated[1] at The Cannes Film Festival for the Palme d'Or [2] and also for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globe Awards[3] and the Academy Awards[4] in 2017.

Table of Contents

Early life and family

Bisu was born on September 15, 1987, in Bucharest, Romania to Romanian/ German parents. Bisu grew up in the German community in Romania, attending the German Kindergarten, Highschool and College in Bucharest.

At 16 years old in 2003, Ingrid did her first photoshoot for a famous teenage magazine called "Cool Girl", for their New Year's Eve edition photoshoot. She had her first audition for Orange S.A. Mobile international commercial. They auditioned girls in Israel, England and Romania, but Ingrid got the part. The commercial ended up being broadcast in Israel and Romania.

Acting career

2003–2005

Bisu had a part in a Romanian national TV series, Casatorie de Proba"(Marriage of Probation)[5] playing the part of "Flori" - a young and bright teenager.[6] As a result, she appeared in magazines[7] and television interviews.[8][9] Bisu had a role in the movie BloodRayne (film) where she plays alongside Sir Ben Kingsley.[10] and had other smaller roles in sitcoms such as "La Bloc"(In The Building) and "Arestat la domiciliu"(Arrested at home) with Pro TV.

Ingrid Bisu and Ben Kingsley in BloodRayne.
Ingrid Bisu and Ben Kingsley in BloodRayne.

2006

In 2006 she takes the lead role of "Alice" in the drama television movie "O Lume A Durerii"(A World of Pain),[11] part of a project meant to show the struggles of teenage women in Romania at the time. That project got her the attention of director Cristian Mungiu, winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007[12] for his movie 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days who distributed her as "Viviana" for his Tales from the Golden Age movies. A two part series, with a comedic take on the Communist Period in Romania. This series was nominated 6 times at the Cannes Film Festival.

2007–2008

Ingrid enrolls in the Hyperion Academy of Dramatic Arts in Bucharest, where she gets the highest score on her admission exam, starring in theater plays with lead roles such as "Nina" in The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, Hedda Gabler in the play by Henrik Ibsen and "Mona" in The Star Without a Name by Mihail Sebastian. Balancing out school with her movie and television career, she took on the role of "Naomi" in the drama series, 17, Poveste despre destin (2008) on Prima TV, a NC-17 rated for violence and language show about young adults and the repercussions of drugs, violence and other abuse. During university she also stars as "Bianca" in the comedy series Nimeni nu-i perfect (Nobody's Perfect),[13] a Romanian sitcom similar to Saved by the Bell.

2009–2011

After movies such as the horror film Slaughter (2009 film) and the Christmas comedy Ho Ho Ho (film) she got the part of Mona/Amie 2 in the movie What War May Bring, directed by Claude Lelouch winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film[14] and also Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Claude Lelouch wanted Ingrid to play the part of a German being seduced in the war, but since she didn’t have the specific look of blond hair, blue eyes, he created a part on the spot as the "friend of the German" so she could be a part of his movie. Her next role is in the film Portrait of the Fighter as a Young Man directed by Constantin Popescu, where she plays real life based character, "Matilda Jubleanu". The movie tells the story of the people that went against the communist regime and hid in the mountains and the repercussions that had on the families left behind.[15] Here she has a torture scene, where the character is being burned alive for not giving information on the whereabouts of her family.

Ingrid Bisu in <i>Outbound</i> 2010.
Ingrid Bisu in Outbound 2010.
2011 was a big year for Ingrid, as she worked with Cristian Mungiu again, who wrote the script for the movie Outbound where she portrays "Selena", a young girl who resorts to prostitution for the man she loves. A dark and powerful movie where she gets to explore a very different character from what she was usually cast as. The movie has 19 awards and 9 nominations at international film festivals, such as the Locarno International Film Festival, Viennale.[16] Also in 2011 she becomes one of the youngest television presenters,[17] for the national morning show on Kanal D Romania[18] (a Turkish network that became one of the biggest networks in Romania), called "Cafeaua de dimineata" (Morning Coffee), a 2-hour live morning show with news, weather report and horoscope.The show aired Monday through Friday, 7.30 a.m. to 9.30 a.m., and Ingrid was the host[19] and executive producer but also one of the writers for it alongside "Andrei Duban" who co-hosted the show with her.[20] She came up with a concept of "doing something new everyday" to boost the ratings. So in every show she would teach people how to do something themselves or fun new activities they could try.[21]

2012–2013

After her morning show ends, Ingrid goes back to her first love, movies, and in 2012 she is featured in Romanian films such as Sunt o babă comunistă in directed by Stere Gulea and "Roxanne" directed by Vali Hotea,[22] both films with multiple nominations.[23] She gets a supporting role in the American horror movie Dracula: The Dark Prince in 2013 starring Jon Voight, where she plays Minerva, the bold leader of the prisoners being caught and brought back to Dracula's castle.[24] Her next project is the science fiction film The Zero Theorem directed by Terry Gilliam, with Matt Damon and Christoph Waltz, where she plays Christoph's colleague. In 2014 (end of 2013) she was chosen to play "Brittany White" the host of a 5-hour live comedy web series, being broadcast in the United States, called "The Super Yolo Show".[25] The show, created by an American company to be filmed in Romania and broadcast live in the US is mostly improv and is a satire of today's social media culture and the way it affects people's day-to-day lives.

2014–present

Begin of 2014, Ingrid auditions for the Oscar nominated film Toni Erdmann directed by Maren Ade, one of Germany's youngest up and coming directors, and lands the part of "Anca", the young and bright assistant of the lead character "Ines" played by Sandra Huller.

Ingrid Bisu and Sandra Huller in <i>Toni Erdmann</i> 2016.
Ingrid Bisu and Sandra Huller in Toni Erdmann 2016.
The movie is a worldwide phenomenon, with over 56 nominations and 33 award wins, including Best Film and Best Screenplay, with Maren Ade named Best Director and actors Sandra Huller and Peter Simonischek Best Actress and Best Actor at the 2016 European Film Awards[26] The movie was also nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival[27] where it won the FIPRESCI award.[28][29] A.O.Scott of The New York Times describes the movie and Ingrid's performance in a recent article: "Early in "Toni Erdmann" — by a wide margin the funniest almost-three-hour German comedy you will ever see — there is a brief discussion, conducted in a sterile modern office building in Bucharest, about the meaning of the English word "performance." For Anca (Ingrid Bisu), a young Romanian employed by a global consulting firm, it refers to the way she does her job and, more than that, her ability to obey the norms and protocols of the corporate workplace. Her boss, she explains, gives her "a lot of feedback," which is clearly a euphemism.".[30] The film continues it's immense success by scoring a nomination for "Best Foreign Film" at The Golden Globes in February 2017.[31][32] The success of Toni Erdmann[33] culminated with its most recent Academy Award nomination for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film[34]

References

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment