Sara Martins facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sara Martins
Sara Martins at 2018 Cannes Film Festival
Born	(1977-08-19) 19 August 1977 (age 47) Faro, Portugal
Nationality	French
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2000–present
Known for	Death in Paradise

Sara Martins is a talented French actress born on August 19, 1977. She is well-known in France for her many roles in TV shows, movies, and plays. Many people around the world also know her as Detective Sergeant Camille Bordey from the popular TV show Death in Paradise. This show is a mix of crime, comedy, and drama, and it was filmed in Guadeloupe, which is a French island.

Sara Martins left Death in Paradise during its fourth season in 2015. However, she later came back for a special appearance in Season 10 and again in Season 13 through a video call.

Early Life and Education

Sara Martins was born in Faro, a city in Portugal. Her family comes from Cape Verde. When she was only three years old, she moved to France.

As a young girl, Sara loved ballet and studied it seriously. She even became the first person of African descent to join the famous Lyon Opera. However, she realized she couldn't move on to the Paris Opera because they preferred dancers who all looked similar, and there were no other black dancers there.

So, Sara changed her path. She earned her high school diploma, called a Baccalauréat, with a focus on theater. After that, she studied law for a while. When she was 20, she decided to follow her dream of acting. She studied at a theater school in Paris called Les Enfants Terribles. Later, she got an acting degree from the very selective French National Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Interestingly, Sara learned English when she was a teenager by listening to the lyrics of songs by the band U2.

Acting Career Highlights

Early Roles and TV Debut

Right after finishing high school, Sara Martins got her first acting job with a famous director named Roger Planchon. She performed in a play called Le Radeau de la Méduse in Villeurbanne, France.

She also acted in plays in London, including Le Costume (which means The Suit), and a French version of David Mamet’s play Race.

Sara's first TV appearance was in 2001. She acted in French police shows like Maigret and Police District. She also played a character named Fleur in the series Pigalle, la nuit. While she was filming Death in Paradise, she also worked on another French crime TV show called Détectives, where she played a main character, Nora Abadie.

In 2006, she appeared in a movie called Paris, je t'aime. This movie is made up of many short stories, and Sara was in the part set in the Parc Monceau area of Paris.

Death in Paradise Role

In April 2011, the BBC One TV channel announced that Sara Martins would star in a new crime comedy-drama called Death in Paradise. This show was a joint project between British and French TV companies. It was Sara's first time acting in a comedy and her first time on British television. She already had experience playing a police officer.

Death in Paradise first aired on October 25, 2011. Sara played Camille Bordey, a detective sergeant on a made-up Caribbean island called Saint-Marie. Camille and the other local police officers helped a British detective, Richard Poole (played by Ben Miller), solve murder cases.

During the filming of the first season, Sara got hurt while doing a stunt and tore a tendon in her heel. She has also shared that while working on Death in Paradise, she realized some of her everyday actions were very French!

In the third season, Inspector Poole's character was written out, and a new British detective, Humphrey Goodman (played by Kris Marshall), took his place. Sara's character, Camille, left the show in the fourth episode of the fourth season. Her character moved to Paris. Sara explained why she left, saying, "I’ve loved everything about the show. But the only way to grow in life is to take risks, even if it means losing something you love, or leaving a place that’s comfortable." In 2021, she and Ben Miller both returned for a special two-part episode.

Recent Work

After Death in Paradise, Sara Martins appeared in two French detective shows: La Loi d'Alexandre and Capitaine Marleau. In 2018, she was in the British series Father Brown, playing the wife of a criminal character named Flambeau.

Also in 2018, she played a police inspector in a TV movie called Un Mensonge Oublié (which means Children of the Lie in English). She also appeared in the movies Kiss & Tell and I Love My Mum.

In 2020, Sara played a police detective in an 8-episode French TV series called Grand Hôtel. She also played Victoire in Réunions, a French TV series set on the island of La Réunion. She then played Diane Dombre in the French TV series Alexandra Ehle, about a determined coroner in Bordeaux.

In 2023, she had a role in the TV series Citadel, which is available on Prime Video.

Selected Film and TV Roles

Film

Television

See also

In Spanish: Sara Martins para niños