Julia van de Graaff
is a Dutch actress of partly Polish-Russian descent. She is also a film producer and screenwriter at LYNX Film.
In 1994 she graduated from the actors department of the Theatre Academy in Maastricht. After her graduation she took additional courses with Krystian Lupa and Krzysztof Globisz at the Theatre School in Krakau, Poland.
She started her career at the National Theatre and played a wide variety of parts with several theatre companies like Theaterhuis Alba, Mighty Society and Bonte Hond (Spoonface, VSCD Zilveren Krekel Award 2010). She made good use of her Polish background and knowledge of the language as an actress and translator (Julia translated interviews with activists) in The Canteen by Theatre Group Polly Maggoo, a play about the Polish Workers Union Solidarity, which was shown at Dutch festivals and performed in the Polish language on location in the Gdańsk shipyards. Julia not only speaks Dutch and Polish but is also fluent in English.
After her graduation, Julia worked with Mime Group Golden Palace, which greatly influenced her development into the actress and producer that she has now become. She has played in multiple performances, amongst which are Feest!, Snowbirds, Contact, Remboe Village, Rampentraining Voor Stewardessen and Restaurant Amore.
In 2007 she initiated with Branoul Theatre her first play, Deathkit, for which she translated and adapted the novel by Susan Sontag. With Theaterproductiehuis Zeelandia, besides playing parts in Women from Zeeland 1 and Women from Zeeland 2 by Kees Slager (directed by Dic van Duin) and En/of by Judith Herzberg (directed by Ilmer Roozendaal) Julia initiated King, sweet king (2012) by Paul Pourveur, which was directed by Paul Knieriem. King, sweet king was a play about the family-owned company and confectionary sugar empire ‘Van Melle’ and was based on interviews by Julia with her family from Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (Zeeland Flanders).
In 2016 and 2017 she played with Blau Hynder in Cleo & Lex directed by Dick Hauser. Simon Weeda wrote this play as an almost solo performance especially for her and Cleo & Lex was shown in nearly 80 private homes in the Netherlands.
From 2015 to 2019 she was artistic director of LYNX. She played the part of Anna in The Second World, the first play of this new theatre group about informers of the Secret Services and opposition members behind the Iron Curtain, based on Julia’s interviews with her Polish-Russian family. In 2019 she produced Apocalypse How by Simon Weeda, directed by Ivar van Urk, in which she was also to be seen in the part of Nel.
In 2020 Julia decided to make a shift with LYNX from theatre to film. In coproduction with Zeelandia, LYNX Film produced for the Zeeland Nazomer Festival SOBER, directed by Joël Duinkerke. Based on a monologue from King Sweet King by Paul Pourveur, inspired by the life of her Great-Grandmother, Julia wrote the screenplay for this short film in which she played the main character of Adriana.
In 2022, UNDER WATER was released. Julia is not only producer but also a co-screenwriter of this first feature film produced by LYNX Film and plays one of the leading parts. The film was nominated for the Competition 1-2 at the Warsaw Film Festival (FIAPF recognized), received a nomination for Narrative Feature Jury Award at the Austin Film Festival (out of 5400 entries) and was selected at CineQuest (voted #1 film festival in the US by USA Today).
In the spring of 2023, distributor Amstelfilm released UNDER WATER in Dutch cinemas and the film can be seen on as V.O.D. on Pathé Thuis, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play and iTunes.
For television, Julia played several guest parts in a number of performances such as Boks, Keizer & de Boer, Spanga’s, Zestien Miljoen Rechters, Snuf de Hond and Flikken Maastricht. She landed a steady part as Nadia in the Frisian series about a law firm Dankert & Dankert by Steven de Jong. She performed in several short films such as Spin of Youth by Joël Duinkerke, Lion. Panther. She-Wolf by Véras Fawaz and Black by Tommie Geraedts. She received the Best Actress Award for Moker (Sledgehammer) by Kuba Szutkowski and Edgar Kapp during 48h Film Project Rotterdam 2018.