Adriana Altaras is a Croatia born German actress, theater director and writer. Altaras was born on 6 April 1960 in Zagreb to a Croatian Jewish family of Jakob and Thea Altaras. Due to political persecution she escaped Zagreb, with her mother, in 1964. They were smuggled from Zagreb to Italy, in a car, by her Italian uncle. She stayed with her mother in Italy for a few years, enough that she learns Italian. From Italy she moved to Konstanz, Germany in 1967. After high school education, Altaras graduated from the Berlin University of the Arts. Altaras completed her academic studies in New York City. She founded the Western Stadthirschen theater in Berlin where she works as an actress, director and writer. In the early 1980s she made the movie debut, but the focus of her work remained with the various theater projects. She worked as a theater director at the Berliner Ensemble and Neuk�llner Oper in Berlin. In 1998 she received the Deutscher Filmpreis Award. In addition to the theater and film work, she worked with Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation as an interviewer and lecturer. Altaras has two sons with composer Wolfgang B�hmer; Aaron Altaras and Leonard Altaras. 

April 6th, 1960 in Zagreb (Age 64)