Lara Heller

Brighton born actress, Lara Heller, is hitting the silver screen and small screen alike. Heller is unique due to her fierce fighting skills. She proves that kicking, shooting and punching is not just for men. The film market has a gap for tough, beautiful, strong women and Lara provides this. She was a professional figure-skater for 13 years, swam competitively for Germany and is an avid surfer. Her reputation as a strong action actress is no surprise.

Heller first came to public attention as the actress in The Cut, which won the Vittorio Veneto Award at the Venice Film Festival. The story is about a father (Tahar Rahim) searching for his twin daughters (Lara Heller). The film was endorsed by Martin Scorsese who was quoted as saying “Fatih Akin’s The Cut is a genuine, hand-made epic, of the type that people just don’t make anymore.”

Ben Hur is the emerging stars most recent credit. The film, directed by Mark Atkins, is a fresh sequel rather than a remake. Retired gladiator Juda Ben Hur (Adrian Bouchet) helps a group of young vigilantes in their quest to remove the Romans from their homeland. Heller comes alive as the rebellious combatant Lucia. Her performance as a gladiator demonstrates she is as dangerous as she is exotic.

Lara has made an unusual leap, from indie character actress to action heroine. In Welcome To Curiosity Lara shoots bullets as a sultry killer named Duffy. The role was originally written for a man and the producers specifically re-wrote the character for Lara. The British crime movie contains five tales that share one thing in common: curiosity kills. A successful gangster (Cristian Solimeno) is forced into a dangerous heist with mafia’s elite (Richard Blackwood) and unscrupulous assassin (Lara Heller). Similarly to Layer Cake, Welcome to Curiosity is the newest in British gangland entertainment.

Troy-The Odyssey, a Tekin Girgin film, is currently shooting in Thailand. The adventure movie expands on the Trojan war and is much in the spirit of Indiana Jones. Lara plays a swashbuckling trojan warrior stolen out to sea against her will. It is refreshing to see an actress take on independent strong characters that are more than just the victim or love interest.

Heller plays a wide range of roles due to that fact that she speaks English, German, French and Persian. She spent years in Switzerland and Luxembourg and is now back in Brighton. She can often be found skating up and down the promenade or wakeboarding with Brighton Watersports between the two piers.

The Cut and Ben Hur can be seen on Apple iTunes and Amazon. Keep an eye out for Welcome To Curiosity and Troy-The Odyssey which are due for release next year.