Valentina Izumi

Valentina Izumi, whose mother is Japanese and father is Italian, harbored a lifelong interest in acting before appearing in several Italian films. She made her acting debut in 2006 in the suspense thriller "La notte del mio primo amore," about a teen whose attempt to sneak out of the house to meet with a boy ends in tragedy. She surfaced a few years later in the teen drama "Questa notte è ancora nostra" as Jing, a newly-arrived Chinese student whose budding romance with an Italian classmate inspires hatred and prejudice from their parents and friends. The following year Izumi was cast in "La città nel cielo," a short sci-fi film about a kind-hearted traveler who stops at a run-down hotel during his quest to find a mythical place known as The City in the Sky; Izumi portrayed Ai, a prostitute android sentenced for destruction. Since then Izumi has appeared in the 2009 film "Giallo," directed by Italian horror master Dario Argento. Starring Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody as an inspector on the trail of a sadistic serial killer, the film was released behind schedule in the U.S. due to Brody filing a lawsuit against the producers, claiming they owed him his agreed-upon salary.