Morgane Polanski (born 20 January 1993) is a French-Polish actress, best known for portraying Princess Gisla in the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

series ''

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

''.

Early life and education

Polanski is the daughter of Polish filmmaker

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a (né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two ...

and French actress

Emmanuelle Seigner Emmanuelle Seigner (born 22 June 1966) is a French former fashion model, singer, and actress. She is known for her roles in '' The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'' (2007), '' The Ninth Gate'' (1999) and '' Frantic'' (1988). She has been nominat ...

. She has a younger brother, Elvis. Polanski was raised

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

ly in French and

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

. Polanski was educated at the

International School of Paris The International School of Paris (ISP) is a private international school based in Paris, France. It is a non-profit organization, and is managed by a Board of Trustees. Many members of this Board are parents of ISP students. It was created unde ...

. She later studied acting at the

Drama Centre London Drama Centre London (often abbreviated as Drama Centre) was a British drama school in King's Cross, London, where it moved in 2011 after a major reshaping of the University of the Arts London. It was part of Central Saint Martins, a constitu ...

and the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama was founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as The Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a ...

, graduating in 2014.

Career

Polanski made her credited acting debut in her father's 2002 film '' The Pianist''. She appeared in two more of his films, ''

Oliver Twist ''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', Charles Dickens's second novel, was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and as a three-volume book in 1838. Born in a workhouse, the orphan Oliver Twist is bound into apprenticeship with ...

'' (2005) and ''

The Ghost Writer ''The Ghost Writer'' is a 1979 novel by the American author Philip Roth. It is the first of Roth's novels narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, one of the author's putative fictional alter egos, and constitutes the first book in his ''Zuckerman Bound'' ...

'' (2010), in the latter of which she had her first speaking role. In 2015, Polanski appeared in the British independent film ''

Unhallowed Ground ''Unhallowed Ground'' is a 2015 British independent horror film that was directed by Russell England, marking his feature film directorial debut outside of television. The movie had its world premiere on 25 April 2015 at the British Independent F ...

'' and began portraying Princess Gisla in the

series ''

''. Princess Gisla was introduced in season three of ''Vikings'' as a daughter of the French Emperor

Charles the Bald Charles the Bald (french: Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), king of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a ser ...

(while a legendary French princess named Gisela was the daughter of his grandson,

Charles the Simple Charles III (17 September 879 – 7 October 929), called the Simple or the Straightforward (from the Latin ''Carolus Simplex''), was the king of West Francia from 898 until 922 and the king of Lotharingia from 911 until 919–923. He was a memb ...

). She directed the shorts ''The Stroke'' (2016) and ''The Understudy'' (2018), the former of which she also wrote. In 2019, Polanski starred in Rene van Pannevis debut feature ''Looted''. Pannevis stated, "I hadn't worked with Morgane before so she was a bit lost after her first scene. Thankfully, she picked it up very quickly and her performance is beautiful. I mean, growing up in that environment, I knew she had the skills". In February 2020, it was announced that Polanski will appear in the

Wes Anderson Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their eccentricity and unique visual and narrative styles. They often contain themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Cited by so ...

's new film ''

The French Dispatch ''The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun'', or simply ''The French Dispatch'', is a 2021 American anthology comedy drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson from a story he conceived with Roman Coppola, Hugo Guin ...

''. It was revealed that Polanski will return to her role as Princess Gisla and make an appearance in season six (part two) of the ''Vikings'', which aired at the end of 2020. In 2021, Morgane Polanski directed Dame

Siân Phillips Dame Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips (born 14 May 1933), known professionally as Siân Phillips ( ), is a Welsh actress. She has performed the title roles in Ibsen's ''Hedda Gabler'' and George Bernard Shaw's '' Saint Joan''. Early life Phi ...

in ''Through the Looking Glass'' short film, which was screening at

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

. Polanski stated, "When I find a project and I know in my gut I need to direct it, I feel no fear. I know how I want to interpret it, what point of view I want to adopt, how I want the colors, the tone. I didn't have any insecurities about approaching Dame Sian's agent and sending her the script. I wanted to recreate that feeling of a fairytale, Snow White with her lips as red as blood; the talking mirror. Sunset Boulevard was also on our mood board. The idea was that the production should have a feel of heightened femininity that's OTT, fantastical".

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Polanski, Morgane 1993 births 21st-century French actresses Actresses from Paris Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama Alumni of the Drama Centre London French female models French film actresses French people of Polish-Jewish descent French television actresses Living people

Early life and education

Career

Filmography

References

Further reading

External links