Biography
Biography
Hélène was born in Paris of a Greek & Irish mother and Spanish father and raised all over Europe.
She has lived in Geneva, London, Cambridge, Llandudno, Wales, Monte-Carlo, Bremen, Tarragona, Paris, New York City and Los Angeles, and travels extensively.
She is fluent in English, French, Spanish, German, Greek and Italian.
She studied English Philology and Literature in Cambridge, England; Spanish at the International Universities of Santander and Baeza, Spain; and German at the Goethe Institute in Bremen, Germany.
She graduated from the Music Conservatory in Geneva with the 2nd prize in piano and studied asunder Maître Sancan at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. She also trained as a dancer in Geneva, Paris and New York.
She attended Hamilton College, New York, where she was also assistant professor of French and Spanish.
She received her Master's in American Literature from the Sorbonne, Paris, where she wrote her thesis on Henry James.
She has worked as a translator/interpreter for the Canadian Embassy, the French Chamber of Commerce and as a translator and language coach for the film and music industry.
Her first book, The Astonished Universe, was published by Red Hen Press in 2006.
Her second book, Life In Suspension, a bilingual collection of poetry, is forthcoming from Tupelo Press. Richard Wilbur writes that “each poem fully exists in two tongues at once, and this adds to the book’s great charm and visionary quality.”
She is also the author of the bilingual poetry collection Dreaming My Animal Selves, forthcoming from Salmon Poetry, and of a series of children’s stories.
Hélène translated the Lawrence Bridges film Muse of Fire for the NEA and has received grants from the Durfee Foundation and the French Cultural Services of Los Angeles.
She also translated into French What We Carry by Dorianne Laux, poems by Eloise Klein Healy, Sholeh Wolpe and John FitzGerald, and the poetry of her father José Manuel Cardona, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Aloysius Bertrand and Jean-Claude Renard into English.
She has taught at the École Active Bilingue in Paris and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
She has been guest lecturer at Brown University and U.C. Irvine, featured poetry reader at the L.A. Times Festival of Books and on national radio.
Her poems have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Mythic Passages, The American Center for Artists, Askew, Barnwood Mag, Spillway, Pirene’s Fountain, Mediterranean Poetry, qarrtsiluni, Maintenant 5: a Dada Poetry Journal and From the Fishouse.
A graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, Hélène also trained with Ellen Burstyn at the Actors’ Studio, and with Sandra Seacat, Sondra Lee and Susan Batson.
In Los Angeles she trained with Margie Haber, Penny Allen, Melissa Skoff, Tim Crouch at the Odyssey Theatre, Larry Moss, Cynthia Songe, Ned Lott and Terry Berland.
She performed the lead in plays at the Actors’ Studio, The Players’ Club, UBU Theatre Rep. and The Naked Angels in New York City.
Hélène played Françoise 'Fuffi' Drou in Lasse Hallström’s CHOCOLAT and Candy Heskin in Lawrence Kasdan’s MUMFORD, as well as roles on LAW & ORDER, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, Campbell Scott's FINAL, BILLBOARD DAD, and many more.
She recently completed filming the role of Mrs Russell opposite John Heard and Cindy Williams in Megan Clare Johnson's movie STEALING ROSES.
Her voice credits include Happy Feet 2, The Muppets, Hereafter, Inception, The A-Team, Knight and Day, Robin Hood, Inglourious Basterds, The Painted Veil, The Interpreter, The Bourne Supremacy, The Terminal, The Pink Panther and many others.
For SERENDIPITY, she co-wrote with director Peter Chelsom and composer Alan Silvestri the song 'Lucienne', which she also sang.
Hélène is also an equestrian, dancer, lyricist, dream analyst and yoga practitioner.
Her father is the renowned poet José Manuel Cardona from Ibiza. Hélène translated his long poem Desde el Ponto Euxino (From the Euxine Sea), from his anthology El Bosque de Birnam.
Hélène is also an advanced equestrian, dancer, dream analyst, astrologer and yoga practitioner.
Member of BAFTA/LA, SAG & AFTRA
Member of PEN USA, The Academy of American Poets, ALTA
