Greta Bellamacina

Bellamacina was born in Hampstead, London, England, and raised in Camden. She discovered an interest in performing at an early age. She attended Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to study acting before attending King's College London[2] where she graduated with a BA in English.

She said:

As a child, I spent a lot of time thinking about the ground, the sky, the sound of a voice or the way we make eye contact. I always felt an unsettling pressure to capture the meanings of those things.[3]

Bellamacina made her acting debut at thirteen playing a Slytherin schoolgirl in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).[4][5]

She said:

I immediately felt most free when performing, it allowed me to be inventive and complicated. Writing until that point was something I did privately, but performing was when words came alive.[6]

She grew up attending The Hampstead Youth Theatre, where she spent the summers writing and performing plays.

In 2017, she played the lead in an experimental short film about the Romanov sisters titled The Last Birthday, alongside actress Anna Popplewell, which has won a number of awards including the European Independent Film Award.[7][8]

In 2018, Bellamacina played the lead in the feature film Hurt By Paradise, performing alongside Camilla Rutherford and Jaime Winstone.[9] She described her reference points as Withnail & I and London Kills Me in an interview with CelebMix.[10] The film premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival, 2019. It was nominated for The Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film and Best Performance in a British Feature film.[11]

She played the character Jane in the film Indigo Valley which was shot in Los Angeles in 2018.[12]

In 2019, Bellamacina performed in a one-night-only reading of The Pussy Grabber Plays at The Playground Theatre, London.[13] She played Miss Texas in the segment "Five Beauty Queens Walk Into A Bar" by Julia Brownell, alongside British actresses Lily Newmark and Tamsin Egerton.[14]

Andy Warhol's Interview magazine says Bellamacina, "is garnering critical acclaim for her way with words and her ability to translate the classic poetic form into the contemporary creative landscape."[15] Bellamacina is represented by Tavistock Wood for acting [16]

In 2020, Bellamacina played the lead character Sally in Jamie Adam's British comedy Venice At Dawn, a modern day Bonnie and Clyde love story, alongside Fabien Frankel.[17] She also starred in The Long Game, by American Psycho producer Lauren McLaughlin, both set for release in 2021.[18]

Bellamacina was shortlisted as Young Poet Laureate of London in 2014 for her debut collection Kaleidoscope.[5] In 2015, she edited On Love, a survey of contemporary British love poetry from Ted Hughes to the present.

In 2016, Bellamacina and future husband Robert Montgomery co-founded New River Press.[19] It was described by Another Magazine as "a publishing house fuelled by restlessness and a frustration with the state of contemporary poetry in Britain. Bringing together young, emerging poets with older and more established figures who may currently lack a platform for their work..."[20]

In 2016, she published Perishing Tame, a collection of poems on motherhood, female identity and love.[19] She also published a collection of collaborative poetry with Montgomery entitled Points for Time in the Sky, a psychogeographical journey through modern Britain, and a rare example of collaborative poetry in British literature. The same year, she edited Smear, an anthology of contemporary feminist poetry. Dazed & Confused Magazine said the collection "unapologetically confronts self-image, body autonomy and our relationships with each other, celebrating the imperfect, frank woman".[21]

In 2018, she was commissioned by the National Poetry Library to write a group of poems for their Odyssey series, modern mediations on Homer's Odyssey. In the same year, she published her Selected Poems 2015–2017.[22]

In 2019, the collection was republished into Spanish, with translations by poet Juan José Vélez, published with Valparaíso Ediciones.

Pierpaolo Piccioli commissioned Bellamacina to write ten love poems, published to coincide with his FW19 collection for Valentino fashion house.[23][24] The poems were featured on the clothes as well as printed into a book which was placed on each seat before the show in Paris.

In 2020, Bellamacina's poetry collection 'Tomorrow's Woman' was published internationally with US publisher Andrews McMeel Publishing, she attended the Winter Institute in Baltimore, Maryland where she launched the book to independent booksellers across America.[25] The collection also had a London launch at the London Review of Books in Bloomsbury where she read a number of her poems. The Financial Times described the collection as "beguiling, urgent, beautiful, lamenting, tender and powerful ode to the complexities of contemporary womanhood" and Bellamacina as a "cultural Trojan horse".[26]

As a library activist, Bellamacina wrote and directed a documentary, about the rise and the decline of the British public library. The Safe House: A Decline of Ideas, was released in 2016 at The Gate Cinema, in Notting Hill.[27] The documentary was inspired by her upbringing, where the library was a crucial space for her, introducing her to the works of Anne Sexton and Elizabeth Smart.[28] The documentary explores the heritage and significance of the British Public Library, also questioning why such a historically important British institution is in dramatic decline in today's contemporary society. The film features intimate and personal stories from British literary and film figures, including Stephen Fry, Irvine Welsh, Bonnie Wright and John Cooper Clarke.[29]

Bellamacina wrote and directed a short film featuring Ezra Pound's 90-year-old daughter Mary de Rachewiltz entitled 'Ezra Pound: The Last Cantos’, which aired on National Poetry at the Soho Revue Gallery in London.[30] Bellamacina named the opening night "National Poetry Day Who Gives a Fuck?", celebrating the importance of National Poetry Day with a series of live poetry performances.

In 2019, Bellamacina's fiction debut 'Hurt By Paradise' was nominated for ″Best UK Feature″ at both Raindance Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival 73rd edition and was widely acclaimed. Filmotomy said “Bellamacina has it in her to become one of the great contemporary female voices in British cinema.”.[9][31][32]

Bellamacina began her modelling career after being discovered on a bus in Camden when she was 14. Bellamacina has appeared in fashion campaigns for Shrimps,[33] Mulberry (company) and Stella McCartney,[34] and posed for Vogue Magazine, Dazed, I-D Magazine and Porter. She has walked in catwalk shows for Dolce & Gabbana.[35]

In 2018, Bellamacina appeared on the cover of independent fashion magazines Unpolished Magazine,[36] British Girls and Hello Fashion Monthly celebrating her work as an actress and poet.[37]

In 2019, Bellamacina starred on the cover of Harper's Bazaar photographed by Tom Craig (photographer) on the Orient Express. The issue featured four of Bellamacina's poems alongside the pictures of her on the train and in Venice.[38][39] She also featured in The Vampire's Wife fashion campaign alongside Kate Moss, Susie and Nick Cave and Keira Knightley with her son Lucian-Valentine.[40]

In 2020, Greta starred in a main fashion story for British Vogue November issue, alongside her sisters, photographed by Juergen Teller and styled by venetia scott. Greta also became the face of The Vampire's Wife collaboration with H&M [41]

Bellamacina is married to Scottish artist-poet Robert Montgomery, and the couple have two children.[24]

• Greta Bellamacina at IMDb
• Interview Magazine, "Greta Bellamacina's Modern Poetry", Interview .
• "I-D Magazine", young London poet greta bellamacina is on a mission to save Britain’s libraries, 6 February 2015 .
• Vogue Italia, An interview with Greta Bellamacina: poet, artist and model .
• Vogue UK, Poetry Corner, 10 July 2014 .
• I-D Magazine, fall in love with this collection of contemporary british love poetry .
• CR Fashion Book, A Surrealist Account: After Dark, Starring Greta Bellamacina .
• I-D Magazine, Watch the trailer for brand new documentary The Safe House: A Decline of Ideas exclusively on i-D.
• Harpers Bazaar UK, A SAN FRANCISCO LOVE STORY.
• Harpers Bazaar UK, IN CONVERSATION WITH VIVIENNE WESTWOOD.
• Purple.fr, Poet Greta Bellamacina at Hay Festival.