Alina Șerban is an actress, playwright, screenwriter, and Romania’s first Roma woman film and theater director.

Overcoming significant obstacles, including discrimination and poverty, Alina was the first in her family to graduate from high school and pursued her education at some of the best drama schools globally – Tisch, New York, and RADA, London.

She represented Romania at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 with the film “Alone at My Wedding,” where she played the leading role. From 2019 to 2020, she received four Best Actress awards, including Best Actress in Germany for her role in the groundbreaking Austrian-German film, „Gipsy Queen”. Șerban also starred in the film „Housekeeping for Beginners,” Macedonia’s entry for the Oscars in 2024, which won an award at the Venice Film Festival in 2023.

She made her directorial debut with “Letter of Forgiveness” (2020), the first film about Roma slavery from a Roma perspective. In 2022, she became the first Roma woman director in Romania to have her theater play, “The Best Child in the World,” included in the permanent repertoire of the National Theater of Bucharest. Since its release, the play has consistently sold out during performances.

In 2024, Alina Șerban became the first Roma woman in Romania to receive The Order of Cultural Merit, in the rank of Knight, D Category, for „Performance Arts,” from the President of Romania. She is one of the 44 European leaders selected for the Young European Leaders programme 2024, led by Friends of Europe.