Eva Ionesco (born 18 July 1965) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. She is the daughter of Romanian-French photographer Irina Ionesco.

Biography

At the age of 5, Eva became her mother's favorite photo model. Irina Ionesco's erotic photographs of her young daughter Eva have been a source of controversy since they first appeared in the 1970s. Eva also modeled for other photographers such as Jacques Bourboulon.

She is the youngest model ever to appear in a Playboy nude pictorial, since she was featured at age 11 in the October 1976 issue of the Italian edition of the magazine in a set by Bourboulon. Another of her nude pictorials, in the November 1978 issue of the Spanish edition of Penthouse, was a selection of her mother's photographs. She made also the cover page of Der Spiegel.

Eva Ionesco made her movie début at the age of 11 in 1976, playing a child in Roman Polanski's movie The Tenant. A short time later she was cast in movies of the mid-1970s like Maladolescenza (also known as Puppy Love). In 1977 her mother lost custody of her children and Eva Ionesco was brought up by the parents of footwear designer Christian Louboutin. She tried three times to sue her mother for emotional distress, and the trial is still going on through various courts in France. In 1998 the French police confiscated from her mother's apartment hundreds of photographs in which she appears at the age of five in suggestive poses and in complete nudity.

Her story served as inspiration for Louis Malle's movie Pretty Baby. In the 1980s, she attended the prestigious acting school Amandiers, directed by Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Romans. In 2010 she directed her first feature film, My Little Princess starring Isabelle Huppert.

In 2012 Eva sued her mother for taking pornographic photos of her as a child. Although much of her claim was denied, she did receive some compensation.