Elina Löwensohn

After studying at New York University, Lowensohn began an association with stage director Travis Preston. She appeared in his productions of "Hamlet" (as Ophelia), "Last American in Paris," "The Ghost Sonata," "Twelfth Night" and "Roberto Zuccho." Film director Hal Hartley, a college classmate of Preston's, hired Lowensohn for his short film "Theory of Achievement" in 1991. Their association, which Lowensohn has described as "an artistic connection," has included "Simple Men" (1992), in which she was an epileptic anarchist, "Amateur" (1994), in which she plays a once notorious porn star, and "Flirt" (scheduled for release in 1996), in which she plays a nurse in a segment set in Berlin. Lowensohn has also established a working relationship with director Michael Almereyda. She was featured in his hour-long "Another Girl, Another Planet" (1992), which was shot in Pixelvision, and played the eponymous heroine of "Nadja" (1994), a femme fatale vampire loose in NYC. Lowensohn appears in Julian Schnabel's biopic of the artist "Basquiat" and plays a supporting role in Herb Gardner's "I'm Not Rappaport" (both 1996). In a memorable 1994 episode of the NBC sitcom "Seinfeld," Lowensohn appeared as a Romanian gymnast. Her first significant TV-movie was "My Antonia," (USA), based on the Willa Cather novel, in which she plays a Bohemian immigrant teenager who brings spirit back into Neil Patrick Harris' sullen life.