Irina Ionescu

Anca Irina Ionescu, born in Bucharest 1946, is the Romanian translator and author that by chance became an actress during her studies at the University of Bucharest. She was the grand daughter of the renowned philosopher Name Ionescu, brought up in a highly intellectual home of doctors and educators. When Anca Irina Ionescu graduated from the Matei Basarab high school in Bucharest 1963, she already knew five foreign languages, French, German, English, Russian, and Polish. Today she speaks nine languages, adding Czech, Spanish, Italian and Bulgarian to the list. She became of translator of important literature like Boris Pasternak, Leo Tolstoy and Franz Kafka. But first she acted in a short film "Pe litoral mi-a ramas inima / On the seashore my heart remained" (1961) and the feature film "Dincolo de bariera / Across the barrier" (1965). The film director Francisc Munteanu spotted her at the University of Bucharest and persuaded her to take the leading role as Nastasia.