Cervi was born in
Rome on 13 April 1976. She is the daughter of director
Tonino Cervi and granddaughter of actor
Gino Cervi. Her mother is the Italian producer of Austrian-Hungarian origin Marina Gefter. Cervi started her acting career at age ten in Carlo Cotti's 1986 film
Portami la luna. She also played an English-language role in
Jane Campion's 1996
The Portrait of a Lady. One of her most acclaimed roles was the lead in the 1997 film
Artemisia, directed by
Agnès Merlet. It was loosely based on the painter
Artemisia Gentileschi's life, but controversially portrayed the relationship between
Agostino Tassi (played by
Miki Manojlović) and Artemisia as a passionate affair rather than as rape. In 2011, she appeared as Arianna in BBC TV's Italian detective
mini-series Zen. She also appeared as "Valentina" in
Canale 5's series
Distretto di Polizia in 2011. Cervi appeared as
Bertha Mason in
Cary Fukunaga's 2011 film adaptation of
Jane Eyre. She was cast as the ancient vampire
Salome in the
HBO television drama
True Blood. She is married to director
Stefano Mordini and has two children, Margherita (born 2013) and a son (born 2016). She received the
America Award of the
Italy–USA Foundation in 2018. ==Filmography==