Severija Janušauskaitė (born 22 October 1981) is a Lithuanian stage and film actress, occasionally performing as a singer, composer, costume designer and fashion model. She is well known for her role in the drama film ''

Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

'' (2014), for which she received an Award for Best Actress at the

Kinotavr Film Festival Kinotavr (), also known as the Sochi Open Russian Film Festival was an open film festival held in the resort town, resort city of Sochi, Russia annually in June since 1991, until it was cancelled in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukrain ...

, a Golden Eagle Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as

Nika Award The Nika Award (sometimes styled NIKA Award) is the main annual national film award in Russia, presented by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Science, and seen as the national equivalent of the Oscars. In 2022 nominees were announced, b ...

and White Elephant Award nominations in several categories. Other popular works include the comedy film ''The Norseman'' (2015) as well as the TV series '' The Optimists'' and ''

Babylon Berlin ''Babylon Berlin'' is a German neo-noir television series. Created, written, and directed by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Hendrik Handloegten, it is loosely based on novels by Volker Kutscher. The series premiered on 13 October 2017 o ...

'' (both 2017).

Early life

Severija Janušauskaitė was born on 22 October 1981 in

Šiauliai Šiauliai ( ; ) is a city in northern Lithuania, the List of cities in Lithuania, country's fourth largest city and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, sixth largest city in the Baltic States, with a population of 112 581 in 202 ...

. Her mother is a teacher and her father is a power engineer. She has a sister working as an intellectual property lawyer, currently at the trade association representing the recording industry. Janušauskaitė showed interest in arts already as a child, taking example from her grandfather, a multi-instrumentalist. Later on, she studied music and graduated from a fine arts school. Finally, she chose a theatre and film study program and graduated from the

Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre The Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius, Lithuania, is a state-supported College or university school of music, conservatory that trains students in music, theatre, and multimedia arts. History Composer Juozas Naujalis founded a ...

in 2005.

Career

Since 2003, Janušauskaitė has performed at several Lithuanian theatres, such as the State Youth Theatre of Lithuania, Oskaras Koršunovas Theatre (OKT), VDU / Mens Publica Theatre, and Lėlė (Vilnius Puppet Theatre), as well as the Arts Printing House, a creative space in Vilnius. After being selected in an open competition, Janušauskaitė was hired in 2006 to play her first major stage role in ''Woman from the Past'', based on a play by

Roland Schimmelpfennig Roland Schimmelpfennig (born 19 September 1967) is a German theatre director and playwright. His plays are performed in more than 40 countries. Biography Schimmelpfennig was born in Gottingen. He began his career as a journalist in Istanbul, ...

. One year later, she played the role of Queen Margaret in ''Ivona, Princess of Burgundia'', accepting an offer by Jonas Vaitkus, her postgraduate studies professor. For her role of Liucija in the drama ''Patriots'' at the Lithuanian State Youth Theatre, in 2008 Severija Janušauskaitė was nominated for the

Golden Stage Cross The Golden Stage Cross (, ASK) is the annual highest award for theatre in Lithuania. It is awarded on the World Theatre Day (March 27) usually for theatrical works performed during the previous year, but also as a lifetime achievement award.

, the highest theatre award of Lithuania. She later played other main characters, such as Barbara in ''Barbara and Sigismund'' and Elisabet Vogler in an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film ''Persona''. The actress was awarded a Fortune Diploma and a Young Theatre Critics Award in 2013 for her portrayal of Lulu in ''Intimacy'' at VDU Theatre. Janušauskaitė started her film career in 2004 with the short film ''The Flame''. Later, she appeared in two TV series, ''

War and Peace ''War and Peace'' (; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, the work comprises both a fictional narrative and chapters in which Tolstoy discusses history and philosophy. An ...

'' (2007), an international co-production, and the Norwegian ''Honeytrap'' (2008). Her first feature film was the Lithuanian-Hungarian ironic drama ' (2010), where she played one of the main roles. This film, directed by Saulius Drunga, won the Silver George Award for the best film in the Perspectives competition at the

33rd Moscow International Film Festival The 33rd Moscow International Film Festival was held from 23 June to 2 July 2011. The Golden George was awarded to the Spanish drama film '' The Waves'' directed by Alberto Morais. The festival opened with '' Transformers: Dark of the Moon'' di ...

. Its

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

received the New Talent Award at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

in 2007. Janušauskaitė gained popularity in Russia and abroad for her role in Anna Melikian's film ''

'' (2014). Her performance of

socialite A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having ...

Margarita was highly praised by

film critics Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish their findin ...

, resulting in the Best Actress Award at the 25th Sochi Open Russian Film Festival (2014), a Golden Eagle Award for Best Supporting Actress (2015) as well as

and White Elephant Award nominations in the categories Best Actress and Discovery of the Year (both 2015). Following the success in Sochi, Severija Janušauskaitė participated as a jury member in the 15th . The following years were characterized by growing critical and public acclaim. In 2013 and 2015, Janušauskaitė was nominated for the Best Lithuanian Actress Award at

Vilnius International Film Festival The Vilnius International Film Festival (VIFF) Kino pavasaris is a film festival held annually in March in Vilnius, Lithuania since 1995, and is the largest film festival in the nation in number of films and audience. It is one of the most anticipat ...

. Her performances in the TV series ''Godfather'' (2014) and films such as ''The Norseman'' (2015) and ''Dreamfish'' (2016) were also widely covered by the news media. The latter film participated in the competition of the 27th Kinotavr Film Festival in Sochi and was nominated for the Russian Guild of Film Critics Award in the category Best Debut Film (2016). For her role of the

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are ...

Helena in ''Dreamfish'', Janušauskaitė received the Best Actress Award at the 25th Honfleur Russian Film Festival. She was nominated for the national film award of Lithuania, the , in 2017 in the category Best Supporting Actress for her role in the historical drama film ''Emilia'' (2016). In 2017, Janušauskaitė became known to a broad audience in Russia and Germany thanks to her roles in major television films. In Russia, the actress is currently widely associated with her performance as Ruta Blaumane, chief of an analytical group in the

Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics () was founded on 6 July 1923. It had three names during its existence: People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (1923–1946), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1946–1991) ...

in the 1960s, in Alexey Popogrebsky's historical drama '' The Optimists'' screened on

Russia-1 Russia-1 () is a state-owned Russian television channel, first aired on 14 February 1956 as Programme Two in the Soviet Union. It was relaunched as RTR on 13 May 1991, and is known today as Russia-1. It is the flagship channel of the All-Russia ...

TV channel in April. In Germany, Janušauskaitė is known for her role as

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

Svetlana Sorokina in another period drama set in

1920s Berlin The Golden Twenties was a particular vibrant period in the history of Berlin. After the Greater Berlin Act, the city became the third largest municipality in the world and experienced its heyday as a major world city. It was known for its leade ...

, Tom Tykwer's ''

'' that had its premiere in October on

Sky 1 Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

. In this to date most expensive German TV series, the actress also appears as the singer Nikoros and performs inter alia the film's

main theme In music, a subject is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a musical composition, composition is based. In forms other than the fugue, this may be known as the theme. Characteristics A subject may be perceiva ...

, , released under the pseudonym Severija. In October 2018, after the series started to air on free TV, the song became the most popular song in Germany's Amazon and iTunes download charts. She considers the role in ''Babylon Berlin'' as her most memorable one so far. Janušauskaitė has many interests and does not work solely as an actress. She wrote music for the children's theatre performances ''

The Little Match Girl "The Little Match Girl" (, meaning "The little girl with the matchsticks") is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story, about a dying child's dreams and hope, was first published in 1845. It has been ...

'' (at Arts Printing House) and ''Evolution'', designed costumes for '' Now You See It / Now You Don't'' (both at Vilnius Puppet Theatre). Apart from that, she also appears as a fashion model.

Personal life

Janušauskaitė likes singing and plays piano. Her hobbies also include reading, painting, sewing, dancing, yoga, swimming, fencing and make-up design. Besides Lithuanian, she speaks English, German and Russian. She is married to the director of the Vilnius Puppet Theatre and has a son from her first marriage.

Works

Theatre

Film

Dubbing

Accolades

References

External links

* *
Severija Janušauskaitė
on

KinoPoisk Kinopoisk (, a portmanteau of "cinema" and "search") is a Russian online database of information related to films, TV shows including cast, production team, biographies, plot summaries, ratings, and reviews. Since 2018 (as КиноПоиск HD) a ...

Severija Janušauskaitė
on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Janusauskaite, Severija Lithuanian pop singers Lithuanian women pop singers 1981 births Living people People from Šiauliai 21st-century Lithuanian actresses Lithuanian stage actresses Lithuanian film actresses Lithuanian television actresses Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre alumni 21st-century Lithuanian women singers