Lilla Polyák

Lilla Polyák (born 16 March 1976) is a Hungarian actress and singer.

Personal life
Her 2021 song titled Stay (Maradj) was inspired by the loss of her father, Dr. Zoltán Polyák (1952–1987). Her mother is Márta Botos (Mrs. Zoltán Polyák). She has a younger brother, Zoltán.

She was still a pupil of Géza Gárdonyi Elementary School in Győr when she started participating in poem and prose recital competitions. She started her secondary education in Miklós Révai High School in Győr. This is where she became interested in music and singing, and decided to become a professional singer and musical actress. To realize her dream, in 1993 at the age of 17 she moved to Budapest, and graduated from Madách Imre High School (Madách Imre Gimnázium) in 1994.

Her first husband was Zsolt Homonnay, with whom they had two children, Zsombor (2004) and Bulcsú (2007). They divorced in 2016. She married her second husband, András Máté Gömöri, in 2018.

In 2016 the Hungarian Tourism Agency appointed her the #helloHungary ambassador for the city of Sopron and the Lake Fertő region.

Theatre career
Having graduated from high school, she spent a year with the National Theatre of Győr, where she primarily played in musicals while preparing for her entrance exams.

Despite her musical inclination, she was admitted to the prose department of the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest in 1995. During her apprenticeship in Comedy Theatre of Budapest, she already took on main roles, such as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. She graduated from university in 1999. As she was fluent in German, Theater an der Wien, a Vienna-based theatre of Vereinigte Bühnen, signed her in the same year. She returned to Hungary at the end of 2001. She has played roles both in musicals and plays in Budapest as well as in the countryside. She has taken on the role of Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar twice, and has toured with the musical The Beauty and the Beast in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. She has starred in acclaimed musicals such as Romeo and Juliet, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Spamalot, Mary Poppins, the stage adaptation of Federico Fellini’s 8½ titled Nine, and Jekyll & Hyde.

She received a Gundel Award in the musical-operetta category in 2007. On 24 October 2022, the day that celebrates the Hungarian operetta, the Budapest Operetta Theater presented her with the Best Actress of the Season award.

In addition to her theatre roles, she has appeared on the television screen. She competed in the Hungarian musical talent show Sztárban Sztár (A Star within a Star), and has hosted a TV show herself. She starred in two seasons of the Hungarian comedy show series Mintaapák (Great Fathers/Sres. Papis). She has also done commercial work.

Between 2017 and 2020 she was the head musical teacher of the musical training offered by the Pesti Magyar Academy of Drama at the Magyar Theatre, the successor of the Nemzeti Stúdió (Academy of the National Theatre).

She has also narrated several audiobooks.

Singing career
As a singer she sang in numerous animated films, and has collaborated on multiple musical albums. In 2008 she won the pop music game show Csináljuk a fesztivált! (Let's party!) broadcast by the Magyar Televízió for performing Barbra Streisand’s hit a Woman in Love.

In 1993 she was still in high school when she became the singer of an emerging band from Győr, which even performed at a rock festival. She soon moved to Budapest, and applied to the private school of singer and singing teacher Mária Toldy. In her third year at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest she sang in a show. It was then that she began performing in various musical productions with her first husband, Zsolt Homonnay. They released two albums together. Two of Us (Ketten, 2009) and Two Hearts (Két szív, 2010) were both certified gold records.

During her time in Vienna at the turn of the millennium, she toured with an ABBA Tribute Show with a German theatre company. Later, in the spring of 2010 she and Kata Janza debuted a show featuring ABBA songs and musical pieces which they have been performing country-wide ever since.

In 2011 her song titled Here and Now (Itt és most) was 70 th in the Radio Top 100, which was compiled based on listening numbers. She has performed twice in the Hungarian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2013 the song I Gotta Fly (composers: Máté Bella, Vajk Szente, and Attila Galambos; Hungarian version: Valami más), in 2014 her song Rise Again (composers: Gergő Rácz, Viktor Rakonczai, and Zsolt Homonnay; Hungarian version: Karcolás) got her to the first semi-finals of the selection show A Dal.

In 2014 her first solo greatest hits album Most és Mindörökké was released by Sony Music Entertainment Hungary.

In 2019 she judged the song contest Kötéltánc held by the Capital Circus of Budapest.

Awards

 * Gundel Art Award (2007)
 * The Musical Acting Award of the Season (2022)

Movie Soundtrack

 * Enchanted (Most és mindörökké - Ever Ever After, 2007)
 * Home on the Range (Tenyérnyi kis égbolt - Little Patch of Heaven, 2004)
 * Brother Bear (2003/2004)
 * The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

Discography
With credits on several musical and concert CDs too.

Album

 * Most és Mindörökké (2014)
 * Két szív (with Homonnay Zsolt, 2010)
 * Ketten (with Homonnay Zsolt, 2009)

Single

 * Maradj (2021)
 * Ever Ever After (2015)
 * Ecset és vászon (2015)
 * Egyetlen szó (Feat. Gergő Rácz, 2014)
 * Rise Again (2014)
 * White Christmas (2013)
 * Legyen ünnep (2013)
 * Tél, amit ígértél (2013)
 * Karcolás (2013)
 * Valami más|Valami más / I Gotta Fly (2013)

Audiobook

 * Pamela Lyndon Travers


 * Mary Poppins a Cseresznyefa utcában (E-Audiobook: 2022)
 * A csudálatos Mary Poppins (2019, E-Audiobook: 2021
 * Mary Poppins a Parkban (2018, E-Audiobook: 2021 )
 * A csudálatos Mary kinyitja az ajtót (2017, E-Audiobook: 2022 )
 * A csudálatos Mary visszatér (2016, E-Audiobook: 2021
 * Szilvia K. László


 * Marci és az évszakok (2016)