Inga Sempel

“I’m a writer and performer of the human soul. I combine contrasting emotions and deep analysis. My writing can be sweet and sinister, elegant and violent”

My first contact with the world of acting was at school in 1994, where I joined the school’s theatre company, getting the chance to play intense and challenging roles such as Ecuba in “The Trojan women” by Euripides, Electra in “Electra” by Sophocles and Dionisus in “Bacchants” by Euripides. It was during one of these performances on tour where I received the prestigious Award for Best Dramatic Actress, at the Ancient Greek Theatre Festival in Bologna, at the age of eighteen. Since then, my passion for theatre, either classical drama (such as Pirandello and Beaumarchais), contemporary drama (Phyllis Nagy and Sarah Kane) or comedy (Plautus), has grown immensely and has always inspired me to experiment with the most diverse roles. I continued to hone my skills by starring in various TV series for Channel 5 – Italy and independent cinema, working with accomplished directors such as P. Pingitore, S. Vitiello and R. Fratter. In 2001 I founded my own theatre company “The foolish” which mainly showcased musical comedies (“In search of an impotent man”, “Till death do you part”, written directed and acted by me). After moving to the UK in 2008, I was specially selected for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2009 to perform a play which I wrote, directed and starred in; “Chanel and the smelly world of Market Street” was my first triumph as a playwright. It portrayed the story of four separate characters all of which signified a symbolic aspect of the dirty street. In 2011 I founded Storm and Light Pictures, where I hold the position of writer, screenwriter and performer in English and in Italian. Since then I wrote, starred in and produced the award winning short film "Poor Unfortunate Souls", the feature film script "The Melted Heart", the art film "The Starkmaker". I'm currently developing the script for the web series "The Crow's Legacy", a historical sci-fi set in Tuscany at the end of the XIX century.