Anna Galiena

Anna Galiena is an Italian actress born on December 22, 1949. She is widely recognized among English-speaking audiences for her performances in prominent international films such as Le Mari de la coiffeuse, also known as The Hairdresser's Husband, as well as Jamón jamón, Being Human, and Senso '45. Over the course of her career, she has built an extensive filmography spanning European cinema, Hollywood productions, and stage theater.

Galiena spent her early years in a family environment that possessed an appreciation for the arts, though her relatives initially discouraged her from pursuing a professional career in artistic fields. At nineteen years of age, she chose to depart from her family home and step away from her university studies. She relocated to Ciociaria alongside a group of friends with the goal of performing in theatrical stage productions.

In 1974, Galiena departed Italy to live abroad, residing in Toronto for several years. Toward the end of the 1970s, she moved to New York City to further pursue opportunities in the acting field. Upon taking her first audition in the city, she successfully secured the leading female role in an Off-Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet. While based in New York, she underwent professional training at the Actors Studio and actively performed on stage. Her theatrical credits during this period include playing the character of Nina in The Seagull, appearing in Richard III with the American Shakespeare Company, co-starring alongside Michael Moriarty in Uncle Vanya at The Public Theater, and participating in The Chain, which marked the playwriting debut of director Elia Kazan.

In 1984, Galiena returned to her native country of Italy. She continued her theatrical pursuits by taking on the role of Natasha in a staging of Three Sisters, directed by Otomar Krejca at the Teatro Stabile di Genova. Alongside her work on the stage, she expanded her career into motion pictures and briefly worked in television broadcasting.

International prominence arrived for Galiena in 1990 when she starred in the French motion picture The Hairdresser's Husband. This breakthrough role was followed in 1992 by her appearance in director Bigas Luna's film Jamón, jamón. In 1994, she made her mainstream debut in Hollywood cinema by appearing in Being Human, a film directed by Bill Forsyth and starring actor Robin Williams. For her performance in Being Human, Galiena delivered lines in Friulian, a Romance language spoken in the northeastern region of Italy.

Following her Hollywood entry, Galiena focused primarily on European filmmaking, accumulating credit for more than fifty feature films alongside numerous television appearances. In addition to her performance work, she served as a jury member at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2003 and later participated as a juror at the 29th Moscow International Film Festival in 2007.

In her personal life, Galiena has been married on two occasions, first to an American named John and subsequently to a French national named Philippe Langlet. She is multilingual, speaking Italian, English, French, and Spanish.