Rebecca Dayan

Rebecca Dayan (; born 17 April 1984) is a French actress, model, artist, and activist. After training in fine arts, Dayan began her career in fashion and theatre in Paris. She then moved to New York City where she took up screen acting. Following several small roles, she returned to painting, and had her first large role in 2017 film Novitiate. She is best known for portraying Elsa Peretti in the 2021 Netflix miniseries Halston.

Early life

Rebecca Dayan was born on the French Riviera The oldest of three siblings, she was raised in her parents' hotel in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, where she developed a love for acting, before the family moved to Nice. There, she studied art and theatre at the fine arts school Villa Thiole, before moving to Paris aged seventeen. At home in the south of France, Dayan would put on small shows for friends, and was introduced to many films and artists by her culturally-focused mother. Though her father is Jewish, her family was not religious. and she has modeled for Karl Lagerfeld and Ellen von Unwerth. H. premiered in the College Biennale of the 71st Venice International Film Festival.

As a painter, Dayan displayed a collection called "Assumption" at the Catherine Ahnell Gallery in New York Novitiate saw positive reviews. The San Francisco Chronicle praised that as part of the film's ensemble, actresses Dayan, Agron, and Julianne Nicholson "would be the highlight of any other film, the person audiences would go home talking about".

Dayan portrayed French actress Sarah Bernhardt in the 2020 Nikola Tesla biopic Tesla. In part, the film looks at Tesla's obsession with Bernhardt. Vulture said that writer-director Michael Almereyda shoots Dayan "as if she were her own paradoxically liberating-intoxicating, techno-natural Earth-machine force: At one point, we see her enter a room to a throbbing disco beat, a very contemporary-looking entourage trailing behind her, like she's bringing modernity itself with her". Variety called her "erotically frightful" in the role.

In 2019, she was cast to portray Italian designer Elsa Peretti in the Ryan Murphy miniseries Halston. Originally she was going to audition for a part in the show which was ultimately removed in rewrites, but her manager thought she would be better as Elsa. The miniseries was filmed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, when it was released on Netflix, Dayan was working on a feature she had written and hoped to create. 2017 Novitiate Sister Emanuel Awards and nominations Year Award Award category Title of work Result 2022 FANDOM Awards Most Terrifying Performance of the Year American Horror Story: Double Feature