Anna Rezan

Anna Rezan Kritseli (Greek: Άννα Hannah Rezan Κριτσέλη; born 10 December 1992) is a Greek actress, model, musician, and filmmaker. Rezan began her career in her early teens by appearing in Greek films and television series, most notably co-starring in the 2008 TV drama Farewell Anatolia and starring in the 2010 comedy film ShowBitch.^[2]

Her first international feature film co-starring role was in La commedia di Amos Poe, a new translation of Dante's Divine Comedy by Amos Poe starring Roberto Benigni that premiered in the 2010 Venice Film Festival.^[3] Her debut song "Let there be rain" was released internationally in 2011^[4] and she made her catwalk debut as a high fashion model in New York Fashion Week in 2013.^[5] In the beginning of 2015 she filmed Dance Fight Love Die - With Mikis Theodorakis on the Road, which is written and directed by Asteris Koutoulas.^[6] Rezan's directorial debut is a documentary by her and Greek filmmaker Zafeiris Haitidis about the Jews of Greece,during WW2.^[7][8]

Early life

Rezan was born in Athens, the daughter of Fotis Kritselis from Ismir, Crete and Peloponnesus, a federal judge, who wanted to have been a director and Eva Mathilda Kalamara, a Sephardic, Eskenazi Jew born in Greece, a lawyer, that also studied at a school of Dramatic Arts before going into Law School, which was only revealed to Rezan in 2009. She has a brother named Leon. Rezan's great grandmother Rachel Kalamara was arrested by the German's during World War II and didn't return from the Auschwitz concentration camp but her grandfather Leon was rescued by Christian Greeks and survived during the war.^[9]

Since the age of five, she was staging musical theater and comedy shows at the living room and at the age of 6, she started studying musical theater and performed in various stagecoach productions and school plays. Soon and while watching the comedy and musical Greek films of the 60s, she stated that acting is what she wants to do.^[10] Rezan as a child loved to watch foreign and especially American films. It was with Coyote Ugly that she vowed to one day move to the United States, although the family had no friends or family members in the US at that time. Anna was 11 and during the family's summer vacation in a Club Med, she met with the animators that were putting on theatrical shows at the hotel and suggested to participate in their show, and she did.

Rezan started her career as an actress at the age of twelve, starring in The Hall of Fame of the Moon which was directed by Irene Heiratou and was produced by the Ministry of Culture of Cyprus. The play, aimed to raise awareness of the political situation in Cyprus and premiered in the Greek National Opera, in Athens with the presence of the Minister of Education of Greece.^[11]

Career

Early career

in 2005, Rezan seen at her ballet classroom in Penny's Dance School, was discovered and did her first professional appearances on Greek TV, in the Greek adaptation of The Nanny. Soon after, she started studying her homework in dressing rooms. She appeared as a dancer in various Greek feature films and TV series such as Woman Is a Tough Person a comedy by Antonis Kafetzopoulos, in Yungermann,Dady's Girls and in Loufa kai Paralagi The TV series by the Greek veteran director Nikos Perakis.During high school's summer holidays of 2007,in June,she travelled to Santorini and became the production runner of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.^[10] In July of the same year,Rezan featured the DJ set of Armin van Buuren in Cavo Paradiso on the island of Mykonos with,a notable,dance performance.^[12] In 2008 she represented Greece at the beauty pageant Miss European Union at the Pallazo di Congressi in Rome, Italy.Also,at the time,she was choreographing minors for Disney commercials in Greece.

2008 to 2010

In 2008 Anna appeared in comedy Greek TV series The Red Room as Svetlana, in which she performed in Russian. Her noteworthy appearance of the year though,was portraying Artemitsa in Farewell Anatolia which was the TV adaptation of Dido Soteriou’s bestseller by the veteran Greek director Kostas Koutsomutis.During the summer,she starred in the world tour of the rock opera 300 Spartans, on stage that premiered in Athens,at Zappeion Megaron.^[13] In 2009,after speding some time in London, Rezan moved to New York City for the first time.She landed s part in the Indie film Daft Queens.She starting taking classes at New York Film Academy and she covered Neo magazine.^[14] At the end of that year she enrolled in the Panteion University of Athens to study Journalism and co-starred as "Babe",the underaged beautiful girlfriend,in Fokion Bogris gangster feature film Katharsi,that released at the end of that year,to mixed reviews.She also guest starred in the comedy Sex Shop T.V. by Makis Papadimitratos and in the TV series Lola.^[15] During that summer,Rezan moved to Los Angeles, California for the first time and enrolled in an acting program at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

2010 to present

In 2010 she co-starred in La commedia di Amos Poe with Roberto Benigni. In the same year, she co-produced and co-starred in Love at First Sight, a romantic comedy short film by Patricia di Salvo set in Los Angeles, which was selected at the 2010 Cannes film festival. In October 2010, she starred in Greek filmmaker Nikos Zervos's parody of show business, ShowBitch, portraying a teenage rock singer who turns into a rockstar. She also made a guest appearance on the Greek TV series I zoi tis allis.^[12] In 2011 she debuted as a vocalist with the European release of "Let There Be Rain" and co-produced the music video of it in Brooklyn, New York.^[16] In the US market, the song aired for the first time during her interview on the CBS radio show Zodiac Divas,by Colby Jensen.^[17] In 2012, Rezan starred and co-produced in The Story of My Life, a comedy film by Dimitris Koukas and Dimitris Nakos in Athens, Greece. She also worked for the first time with Italian director Paolo Genovese in his comedy Immature: Il Viaggio.^[11] In March 2013, she participated in Constantinos Isaias's public service announcement "We Love Cyprus"^[18] that takes place in Los Angeles.^[19] In 2013, she started to cover or be featured in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and Elle.^[11] In 2014, Rezan reunited with Paolo Genoveze in Milan, Italy, acting in Ever Been to the Moon? as fashion industry's It Girl. In April 2015,^[20] she started filming Dance Fight Love Die - With Mikis on the Road in Athens. The film is the work of Asteris Koutoulas ^[21] and includes footage of his world tours with Academy Award winner Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis.^[6] In October 2015 she reunited with Amos Poe^[22] and along with Ali Ozan Akin they filmed a public service announcement to raise awareness for breast cancer. The film features Rezan's performance on "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" by the Beatles.^[23] In January 2016, Rezan hosted the awards ceremony of Hellas Film Box^[24][25] in Berlin.^[26] Rezan's directorial debut is a documentary she is filming with Greek filmmaker Zafeiris Haitidis about the Jews of Greece.^[7][8]

Activities

As a teenage journalist, she contributed to Greek magazines created by George Perisanidis that featured articles written about love, dreamers, films, and musicians such as David Bowie, OMD and The Cure.^[14] She bought a guitar and started taking lessons. In March 2011, Rezan created LovebringsLove. ”Because Love brings Love and it is the greatest power of all" was published in magazines and became one of her trademarks.^[23] In 2012, she became a patron of MMA, an organization that is dedicated to ending the stigma of addictions.^[27] Rezan promoted the right to equal opportunities for education for girls. In 2013, she walked the runway as a special guest at the 4th J’adore la mode Gala charity fashion show to benefit The Evoluer House in Philadelphia,USA.^[28]

Filmography

Film

TV series

References

External links

• Anna Rezan at the Internet Movie Database