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Romana Vrede (born 1972) has been on stage for more than 20 years. She has performed with several theatre companies and has been part of Het Nationale Theater since 2017. This year, she made her directorial debut at Theater Rotterdam with the play The Story of Travis.
Vrede moved with her family from Suriname to the Netherlands when she was four. She grew up in Rotterdam and attended the Toneelschool in Arnhem, where she graduated with a degree in acting in 1999. She performed with several theatre companies, including Onafhankelijk Toneel, Compagnie Dakar, Bogaerdt/VanderSchoot, Bonheur, Artemis and the Noord Nederlands Toneel.
Vrede joined Het Nationaal Theater in 2017, where she recently acted in We zijn hier voor Robbie, Liefdesverklaring and OustFaust. She collaborated there with Eric de Vroedt on The Nation and Race, receiving the Theo d'Or theatre award for her role in the latter and a nomination for a Columbina for her role in the former.
Vrede has also appeared in films and on television. She starred in the TV series Overspel, Nieuwe Buren, Moordvrouw and Morten and also acted in feature films, including TBS, De Eetclub, Hiernamaals and Oom Henk. In 2021, she was nominated for a Gouden Kalf for her lead role in the film I Don't Wanna Dance. She was also the featured guest on the TV programmes Volle Zalen and Zomergasten.
In 2016, she created the play Who's Afraid of Charlie Stevens, about her cognitively challenged and autistic son. She published De Nobele Autist, a book about her relationship with him, in 2020.
Since 2020, Vrede has been working on ‘Tijd Zal Ons Leren’, a project focusing on the near-forgotten and hushed-up stories of resistance fighters in colonial times. Her series of portraits outlines the life stories of more than a hundred Black and white heroes in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Europe. The project has led to a TV broadcast, a series of podcasts and an online talk show. A theatre production will follow in 2023.