Alexandra Maria Lara (née Plătăreanu; 12 November 1978) is a Romanian-German actress, best known internationally for her roles in the films Downfall (2004), Control (2007), Youth Without Youth (2007), The Reader (2008), Rush (2013), and Geostorm (2017). From 2022 to 2025, she served as co-president of the Deutsche Filmakademie.
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Early life
Born in Bucharest, Lara is the only child of actor Valentin Plătăreanu and his wife, Doina. Her father was a successful actor and director in Romania, directing many plays such as Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare and Hernani by Victor Hugo.
In 1983, her family emigrated to West Germany from their home in Bucharest, Romania. Although the family had originally planned to emigrate to Canada, they settled in Freiburg im Breisgau, before eventually moving to West Berlin. She became fluent in German.
Career
By sixteen Lara was playing lead roles in various television dramas; since then she has appeared in films, including as Traudl Junge, Adolf Hitler's secretary, in the Academy Award-nominated 2004 film Downfall; following this Francis Ford Coppola wrote her a letter and gave her a leading role in Youth Without Youth (2007).
