Find Me in Paris

Find Me in Paris
Genre	Children / teen drama
Created by	Jill Girling Lori Mather
Starring	Jessica Lord Hannah Dodd Rory J. Saper Eubha Akilade Hiran Abeysekera Castle Rock Christy O'Donnell Eubha Akilade
Country of origin	France
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producers	Leila Smith Jill Girling Lori Mather
Cinematography	Phillipe de Vaucelles Jean-Phillipe Gosselin
Camera setup	Multiple-camera setup
Running time	25 minutes
Production companies	Cottonwood Media ZDF Enterprises BE-FILMS
Original release
Network	Hulu (USA) ZDF (Germany) Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)(Australia) France Télévisions (France)
Release	14 April 2018 (2018-04-14)

Find Me in Paris (French: Léna Reve d'étoile) is an English-language teen dramedy series produced by ZDF, in Germany. The series follows a ballerina/princess from 1905 who finds herself in 2018. The series airs on Nickelodeon in the United Kingdom, and on Hulu in the United States. The first season premiered on April 14, 2018. A second season of 26 episodes has been ordered, set to air in 2019.

Plot

Find Me in Paris follows the story of Helena 'Lena' Grisky, a Russian princess from 1905, who is training to be a ballerina at the Opéra de Paris. She is a top student at the school and has a kind-hearted, but impulsive boyfriend named Henri, who is unaware that his family has a secret - they are time-travellers. When Henri discovers a time-piece hidden by his father, he gives it to Lena as a gift, thinking it is just a piece of jewellery. However, when Lena's mother, Princess Alexandra Grisky finds out about Lena and Henri's relationship, she decides to take Lena back to Russia for good, which means Lena will have to stop dancing. Not willing to part ways with Henri and ballet, Lena decides to run away with Henri, but because he gave her the time-piece, he accidently transports her to the present day. Lena is now trapped in the future, so Henri has to find a way to bring her back and fight off the time-catchers, who set out to capture Lena.

Meanwhile, in 2018, Lena must continue to attend ballet school at the modern Opéra de Paris in order to keep her identity a secret and remain in Paris until she can return to 1905. However, despite wanting to return to 1905, Lena soon settles into her new time period and makes new friends in some of the school's other students - Jeff, Dash and Ines, who becomes her best friend and the first to discover her secret. However, she also finds a rival in the ruthless Thea, who sees Lena as a threat. Even though she has not forgotten Henri, Lena ends up falling for Max, the star male student, who becomes her dance partner. She also finds a love for a new dance genre, hip-hop, when she joins Max's dance group called the BLOK. With all these conflictions, Lena is left with a choice: return to 1905 or stay in the future.

Production

Find Me in Paris is produced by Cottonwood Media in association with ZDF, ZDF Enterprises, and the Opera National de Paris. The production budget for season one was $12.5 million.

Cast and characters

Main characters

Character	Actor	Seasons
		1
Lena Grisky	Jessica Lord	Main
Ines Lebreton	Eubha Akilade	Main
Thea Raphael	Hannah Dodd	Main
Max Alvares	Rory J Saper	Main
Jeff Chase	Castle Rock	Main
Dash Khan	Hiran Abaysekera	Main
Henri Duquet	Christy O’Donnell	Main
Frank	Seán Óg Cairns	Main

Recurring characters

Character	Actor	Seasons
		1
Pinky	Lawrence Walker	Recurring
Clive	Luca Varsalona	Recurring
Gabrielle	Katherine Erhardy	Recurring
Etienne	Chris Baltus	Recurring
Oscar	Javone Prince	Recurring
Bree	Chloe Fox	Recurring
Kennedy	Caitlin-Rose Lacey	Recurring
Reuben	Manuel Pacific	Recurring

Episodes

Episode #	Title	Original air date
1	The Portal of the Opera	April 14, 2018
2	Welcome to the Blok	April 14, 2018
3	Lena's Secret	April 14, 2018
4	An Explosive Duo	April 21, 2018
5	Rendez-vous in Paris	April 21, 2018
6	Little Mothers	April 28, 2018
7	The Legend of La Fée	April 28, 2018
8	Arabesque and Flamenco	May 5, 2018
9	Friends or Enemies?	May 5, 2018
10	An Overbearing Mother	May 12, 2018
11	In the Opera Tunnels	May 19, 2018
12	The Chill Method	May 19, 2018
13	Gone	July 20, 2018
14	Time to Face the Music	July 20, 2018
15	Between the Bricks	July 20, 2018
16	High-Stakes Hip-Hop	July 20, 2018
17	A Slippery Pointe	July 20, 2018
18	Oh Brother	July 20, 2018
19	Running in the Family	July 20, 2018
20	Secrets and Pointes	July 20, 2018
21	L.O.V.E.	July 20, 2018
22	They Know	July 20, 2018
23	Spinning Lies	July 20, 2018
24	Dance 'till You Drop	July 20, 2018
25	A Dangerous Game	July 20, 2018
26	Showtime	July 20, 2018

Historical inaccuracies

The series is not devoid of historical inaccuracies, clearly made for creative liberties:

• The biggest inaccuracy in the series is the fact that Lena, a Russian princess, is training at a public ballet school to become a professional dancer. In reality, this would never have been feasible. Due to their status, members of the Russian Imperial Family (and any other Royal European family) would never have been allowed to attend a public school of any kind. While it is true that members of the Russian Imperial Family did have private dancing lessons from private dancing teachers, they would never have been able to pursue a professional career in dance.

• Lena has been given the incorrect title: her title is Princess Helena Grisky, but in the princely titles of prince and princess, as well as the titles of king and queen, were never used in Imperial Russia. The titles used in Imperial Russia for the Imperial family were Emperor/Tsar, Empress/Tsarina, Tsarevich (for the first male in line), Grand Duke and Grand Duchess. Therefore, Lena's title should be the Grand Duchess Helena Grisky and her mother's title should be the Grand Duchess Alexandra Grisky. However, after the 1917 Revolution, surviving members of the Imperial Family who fled to the west began to go by the princely titles, so if Lena had been born in 2002 and her mother in the 20th century, then their correct titles would be princess.

• Lena trains at the Paris Opera Ballet School, which she calls "the best ballet school in the world". While it is true that the Paris Opera Ballet School was certainly one of the best ballet schools in 1905, there was another world renowned ballet school in Saint Petersburg, Russia - the Imperial Ballet School (now, the Vaganova Academy). In 1905, Saint Petersburg was the Russian capital and the residence city of the Imperial family, so Lena would not have needed to be sent hundreds of miles away to Paris to train at one of the world's greatest ballet schools when she could simply have attended one such school in her native city.

External links

• Find Me in Paris on IMDb