Cast of the First German Netflix Series 'Dark'

Lisa Vicari | Biography

Played the lead role of Isi in the Netflix original movie 'Isi & Ossi'

• By Chetana
• Update : March 19, 2022

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Lisa Vicari is the only actress who has starred in both the first German Netflix series, Dark (2017-2020), and the first German Netflix movie, Isi & Ossi (2020). 

Short Biografia 

In Munich, Bavaria, Germany, Lisa Vicari was born on 11 February 1997 in a doctors' family. She has a brother named Nicolas Vicari.

She aspired to become an actress from childhood (school-age). Her dream came true when she got cast in a short movie named Tunnelblicke at just 11. In the next few years, she starred in films and TV shows like Hell (2011), Playing Doctor (2014), Tatort (2017), and Luna (2017).

Although Vicari had established herself after her performance in Luna (2011)—which she played when she was only 14 years old, she gained international prominence after the series Dark received universal acclaim.

Most recently, Vicari appeared in films like Isi & Ossi (2020), Das Haus (2021), Am Ende der Worte (2021), and Hannes (2021). Furthermore, she will be appearing in the upcoming television series Django.

Vicari shares photos of all her acting credits and her classy portraits to her over a million followers on Instagram as of March 2022.

She Caught The Acting Bug At An Early Age

During her younger days, Vicari always had an urge to be in movies she used to watch and wanted to be a part of it. So she looked up to the actresses: Emilia Schule (German actress), Cate Blanchett (Australian actress), and Saoirse Ronan (Irish and American actress) as her role models.

She says she was inspired by the German detective movie Emil und die Detektive, released in 2001. "They were just so free... I've always wanted to be like them, I think," Vicari reflects on the film's characters.

She describes her childhood as normal and relates that the memories have helped her in her acting profession. She recalls, "I had a happy childhood. My parents encouraged me to show feelings...I like crying. I like the state of being melancholy. I think that's easy."

Out of all the innate qualities, her persistence brought her closer to her acting ambition in the early days. However, since no one in the family had an acting background, Vicari found it hard to convince her family about her desire to pursue acting.

She Begged Her Mother For Her Acting Ambition At 10

At the age of 10, she took a friend to a children's improv course and got impressed by the experience. She then started to take an acting class "after begging her mother" for permission.

After that, she studied in Task Acting School and tried out improv performances before eventually joining the University of Potsdam after high school graduation to major in European Media Studies. 

She Hustled for Her Early Roles

Vicari was ten when she got to know someone who wanted to apply to a film school. She contacted the person and got the opportunity to appear in a short film named Tunnelblicke (2009).

Her Role In 'Hell' Had Legality Concerns

Following Tunnelblicke, she got recognition and received roles in movies such as Hanni & Nanni (2010) and Hell (2011). 

Lisa's character in Hell was dark-themed. The film follows Marie (played by Hannah Herzsprung), her younger sister Leonie (played by Vicari), and her boyfriend Phillip (played by Lars Eidinger), who head to the mountains for survival after the world's temperature rises by 10 degrees. In the journey, Leonie gets abducted and ends up in a slaughterhouse.

Vicari was only 14 years old when filming for the dystopian psychological thriller started. She was not allowed to even watch movies of such a sensitive genre at that age. 

Due to her age and the movie's storyline, her role had to get approved by the Jugendamt, the German child Protection Service, to ensure that her experience and the movie's events would not negatively impact her life. 

However, Vicari was not traumatized by the scary plot of the movie. On the contrary, she performed her character Leonie so well that she even won a 'Best Young Talent Award' for her outstanding performance in the film.

She Did Supporting/Bit Parts in Many TV Shows and Movies

In the next few years after appearing in Hell, Vicari worked in several movies and TV shows, including Einer wie Bruno (2011), Under Suspicion (2013), Die Chefin (2014), Playing Doctor (2014), and Tatort (2017). However, her roles in all those projects were either supporting characters or small appearances.

She Played Her First Title Character On 'Luna'

After a couple of minor roles in television and films, she landed the lead role in the movie Luna (2017). With the 2017's movie, Vicari earned her first titular character. In the thriller movie, she plays a teenager who witnesses her family's assassination during a vacation in the mountains and vows to take revenge.

Like Hell, her character in Luna had to show maturity during intense suffering. She orchestrated the required physical stunts all by herself for the movie and learned kickboxing for her action shots. Of her experience of the set, she narrates, "I was taken seriously there, compared to school."

The diva was honored as the best young actress by the Bunte magazine for her role in the thriller Luna. The role also earned her a 'Young German Cinema Award' nomination at the Munich Film Festival in 2017.

'Dark' Was Her Big Break On Television

In the same year, Vicari then played Martha's character—a teenage high school girl whose family and relationship are on the verge of falling apart due to a supernatural time-travel mystery—in the Netflix original science fiction series, Dark. She had initially auditioned for Franziska Doppler's role but eventually got a call back to play Martha Nielsen. 

The series, set in a German town named Winden, revolves around four interconnected families. The families experience a supernatural time-travel twist after the disappearance of two young children in the town. The plot takes its course when a child goes missing, and the underlying secrets of the families unravel.

In the interdimensional movie, Vicari played one of the two leads. Her character experiences distress in her family after the disappearance of her brother. Of course, her character falls in love with the male lead Noah, who later turns out to be the son of her lost brother. The stories of each family get twisted with time-traveling entities and supernatural events.

The series lasted for three seasons. In addition to Vicari, it featured the likes of Louis Hofmann, Maja Schone, Oliver Masucci, and Andreas Pietschmann, amongst many. 

Dark was the first German-language Netflix series and was the second most-watched Netflix series of 2020. All three seasons of the series received rave reviews from critics worldwide.

Vicari believes it was the script that compelled her as well as her co-stars to accept the project. "I mean, I loved the script — everybody who read it loved it, but you can never predict this kind of response," she remarks, reflecting on the overwhelming international acclaim of the Netflix series.

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The series gave Vicari a big break on television since it was her first-ever role as one of the main cast members in any television series. Subsequently, Vicari's performance was highly acclaimed, and it established her career beyond German cinema. She also started gaining popularity and a huge fan following from across the world. 

Additionally, her portrayal of Martha in the series cemented her name as a thriller actress, which she had initially earned in the 2011 movie Hell.

On her popularity and past struggles, she relates, "It is sometimes difficult to endure the rejection that one is forced to face over and over again. It's not like that now, because after I've done Dark I suddenly get every role I auditioned for." 

Dark not only gave her a breakthrough acting opportunity, but it also gave her a great experience. She told Sleek Magazine in February 2018 that filming Dark felt like home to her due to Netflix's professionalism and friendly co-workers. She explained, "We had this German crew, and German cast, and everything felt like home. They even sent us to an adventure park, so we could get to know each other before filming."

Played The Female Lead In Netflix Film 'Isi & Ossi'

In 2020, Vicari co-starred with Dennis Mojen in the first German Netflix movie, Isi & Ossi. She played the role of a billionaire daughter who starts dating a struggling boxer only to take advantage of each other. 

The film's title characters are complete opposites; Vicari plays Isi, the daughter of a billionaire, and Dennis plays Ossi, a struggling boxer. The two start dating to take advantage of each other — Isi dates him to irritate her parents and get them to fund her culinary dream. But, on the other hand, Ossi agrees to help her if she finances his first professional boxing match.

The film received an IMDb rating of 6.4/10. Although it did not receive the similar critical acclaim as her previous work, she could deviate from the usual dark-themed roles she had taken in the past. 

Her Goal To Act In Period Drama Is Coming True With 'Django'

While Vicari was getting recognition for her role on Dark, she was already thinking about the works she would like to do in the future. She shared her dream to act in a period drama in an interview with Sleek Magazine in 2018. She admitted, "That's one thing I really have to do!"

Vicari's dream is coming true now as she has been cast in the Western period drama television series Django. 

Django is an upcoming English-language re-imagining of Sergio Corbucci's acclaimed 1966 Italian Spaghetti Western film of the same name. The original film is still looked upon as one of the beloved Italian films and has inspired over 30 unofficial remakes.

The series is set in the Wild West of the 1860s and 1870s and follows Django (played by Matthias Schoenaerts), a gunslinger haunted by the murder of his family eight years ago. However, he is still searching for his long-lost daughter Sarah (played by Vicari), believing that she is alive. 

Django's search for his daughter takes him to a city of outcasts called New Babylon, which welcomes men and women regardless of their background, race, or creed. He discovers the city was co-founded by Sarah and her fiancé, the series' central villain John Ellis (Nicholas Pinnock), whom she is about to marry.

Django finally meets his now-grown-up daughter Sarah. However, with her wedding to John Ellis approaching, she wants her father to leave the city as she dreads he will put New Babylon in danger if he stays. Meanwhile, Django believes the town is in trouble, and he is determined that he will not lose his daughter again.

Noomi Rapace portrays John Ellis' powerful and ruthless enemy Elizabeth. Other cast members of the series include Jyuddah Jaymes, Eric Kole, Benny Opoku-Arthur, Tom Austen, and Abigail Thorn.

Created by Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli, Django is a 10-episode series produced for Sky and Canal Plus by Atlantique Productions, part of Mediawan, and by Italy's Cattleya, which is part of ITV Studios. 

The production of the series, which began in May 2021, was wrapped in November 2021 following six months of shooting in Romania's Racos, Bucharest, and the Danube area. As of March 2022, the series is in the post-production phase. The expected date of its release is yet to be disclosed.

She Made Directorial Debut With Song' Blue Blue Moon'

In July of 2020, she announced her directorial debut via her Instagram account. She did not disclose the project's name but captioned the announcement post, "So, I directed (I guess)…." She also mentioned that the project was in the editing phase and that she would keep on posting the updates. 

In August, not later than that, she posted the stills of a music video she directed. The video was a new single by Moritz Jahn called 'Blue Blue Moon,' released on 1 September. 

She Is An Award-Winning Actress

Her role in Hell (2011) won her a 'New Faces Award' under the category 'Best Young Talent.' And for her role in Luna (2017), she was nominated for the Munich Film Festival in 2017 for the 'Young German Cinema' award.

Who Does Lisa Vicari Look Like?

A March 2021 Tell Tales article reported that Vicari bears a striking resemblance to fellow Hollywood actress Jennifer Lawrence. According to the piece, the shape of eyes and lips make Vicari and Lawrence look-alike. 

The article further reads, "If they aren't the same person, then Jennifer and Lisa could totally pass for twins. Who knows? Maybe they are sisters who were separated at birth – and were both destined to hit Hollywood…."

Similarly, in December 2017, Reddit users shared their opinions about Vicari's resemblance to various celebrities, including American fashion model Heather Kuzmich, American actress Rachael Leigh Cook, and Irish actress Aisling Franciosi. 

Did You Know?

• In a February interview with Glamour, she said that one would eventually have to "distract" themselves and "look ahead" when they are feeling "wallow or self-pity" during the "first few weeks or months" of being lovesick.  
• Vicari is a vegan and prefers loves a spicy dish.
• She is a fan of the iconic Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe.