Marie Paquim

Marie Paquim was born into a family tradition in the arts. Her father was a professional dancer, and her mother, Lisette (herself discovered by Francois Trufaut), a celebrated Portuguese Fado singer who toured throughout Europe. Marie, who was born in Paris, split her time growing up between France and Portugal and quickly picked up other languages as well, becoming fluent in French, Portuguese, Spanish and finally English. Discovered by legendary French pop singer Sylvie Vartan, Marie dived into the arts with a debut as a baby actor in a Johnson's Shampoo commercial, and from there becoming a versatile dancer (including flamenco) and then a film actress, acting alongside legends like Gerard Depardieu, and then in "The Convent" (appearing in the Portuguese production at the time under the professional name "Leonor Silveira"), with Catherine Deneuve and John Malkovich. The film won the Palm D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Thanks to a traditional family that valued education, her budding film career took a break till she received her Masters degree at the University of Sorbonne, Paris, where she mastered classical Latin and Greek, and then finally her Doctorate in Classical Theatre (with special studies on Moliere and Comedia Del Arte) at one of Europe's oldest and most prestigious universities, Coimbra University in Portugal. Moving her talents across the pond to America, Marie wanted to learn even more, and worked on the production side of the Tom Cruise vehicle "Vanilla Sky". Watching her going about her duties one day on the set, director Cameron Crowe told her, "You belong in front of the camera, not behind it," and quickly improvised a scene for her so she could obtain her SAG card in America. Marie next was accepted into Tom Robbins' prestigious theatre company "The Actor's Gang", by performing a monologue at Robbins' request in, of course, four languages (French, Portuguese, Spanish and English). Utilizing those very unique talents, Marie more recently was the lead in the independent film "Caravaggio and My Mother the Pope", in which she had to speak Latin from the Middle Ages. And she just made a dramatic flash in the final 2015 episode of television's popular drama "Revenge", playing an inmate desperately trying to escape a fire. As someone who wants to do it all, Marie started her own production company, Utopia Lumiere Films, in 2009. She's the main writer, lead actress and creative producer for the company's current project, "Land of the Free, Except for Me", an action thriller drama based on a true story. Her project has already received much attention in the press, and garnered her an exclusive interview on CNN's "Sin Limites", not to mention U.S. and Worldwide distribution, even before a day of filming has begun.