Eszter Balint (born 7 July 1966) is a Hungarian-American singer, songwriter, violinist, and actress. She made her film debut in Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise (1984). She went on to receive a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for Bail Jumper (1990). She also acted in American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy (1989), Shadows and Fog (1991), Trees Lounge (1996), Downtown 81 (2000), and The Dead Don't Die (2019). She had a recurring role as Amia in the fourth season of Louis C.K.'s FX series Louie in 2014.
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Early life
Eszter Balint was born in Budapest, Hungary, to Marianne Kollar and Stephan Balint. She was living with the avant-garde Squat Theatre troupe in New York City, founded by her father, when she first met Jean-Michel Basquiat. They became involved while he was filming Downtown 81. In 1983, Balint was brought into the studio by Basquiat to play violin on the influential hip-hop record "Beat Bop" by Rammellzee and K-Rob.
Career
Balint made her cinematic debut in 1984 in director Jim Jarmusch's independent film Stranger Than Paradise. In 1985 she made her TV debut in Miami Vice as Dorothy Bain in the episode "Buddies". She appeared in the 1990 film Bail Jumper. Roles in The Linguini Incident (1991), Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog (1991) and Steve Buscemi's Trees Lounge (1996) followed. Balint's albums, Flicker (1998) and Mud (2004), both produced by J. D. Foster, were praised by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Billboard. In his review of Mud, Jon Pareles writes: "Miss Balint has her own film noir sensibility as a songwriter. She puts arty twists into back-alley Americana... but the cleverness is not the point. She slips inside her characters to project their restlessness and longing."
