Stefania Vaduva Popescu is an antagonist in the TV series Grimm. She is the queen of the Schwarzwald Gypsies, a group of Romani gypsies, her family roots run deep in Austria. She is portrayed as a very rich and influential individual.
She was portrayed by Shohreh Aghdashloo, who also played Sunny Quadri in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Gozer in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Bellafrancesca Lobo in Renfield, the Dragon in Damsel, Nadia Maroni in The Penguin, and Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan in The Wheel of Time.
History[]
She was contacted by Frau Pech, her old accomplice, who were on bad terms with each other. However upon hearing the chance of a child of Royal blood, she agreed to meet them. Frau Pech brought Adalind to her, however not trusting even a former Hexinbiest, she forcibly performed a highly painful procedure on Adalind to determine it was true. Upon discovering she was two she offered half a million euros for a healthy male child and 750,000 for a healthy girl. Frau Pech tried to haggle the price, however they were both shocked when Adalind revealed she wasn't interested in money, she wanted them to restore her Hexinbiest powers which Nick had stripped from her and those were her terms or no deal. Stefania was taken aback not expecting this, and said that it may not be possible.
She later visited Adalind, telling her it may be possible, however it would be difficult. She presented Adalind with a contract, however as it was written in Romani Adalind refused to sign it not knowing what it said. Not caring she poured a potion on Adalinds hand and forced it on the paper, leaving a bloodly hand print which was taken as a sign of agreement. Adalind later called to tell her Frau Pech had spotted her, although she remained calm while on the phone, she flew into a rage the second she hung up.
Later she called Adalind to tell her she had thought of a way to deal with Frau Pech, however by this point Frau Pech had disabled Adalind and used a potion to take her form. Frau Pech disguised as Adalind went to visit her, where she told her about her plans. She would call Frau Pech under the pretence of betraying Adalind, then she would have her son sneak up behind her and groate her to unconious so they could cut her heart out as the only way to restore a Hexenbiests powers was with the heart of a living Hexenbiest. When asked if this would work, she replied "we will have to wait and see." At that momment her son sneaked up behind Frau Pech and groated her, it was revealed Stefania wasn't fooled and had expected this, she then proceeded to cut the still beating heart out of Frau Pech to use in the spell.
Stefania then took the still beating heart and placed it in a special box, and spilled wax onto to seal it. She then directed Adalind to cut of Frau Pech's feet and hands, and pluck out her eyeballs. Once Adalind was finished she took her, along with all the stuff to special field and tossed the lid of the box to find the spot. Where it landed she made Adalind dig and bury the heart, feet, hands and eye balls. This caused the flowers in the field to die. She had Adalind did them up and take them back to her tent. There Adalind had to put them in Frau Pech's body and sow her closed. Hours later she awoke Adalind to tell her it was ready, cutting open the body red sluge spilled out. She told Adalind to gather the sluge and then rub it on her chest.
Later Stefania met up with Adalind again, Adalind was near the final stages of her pregancy, as such Stefania warned her they had to keep it quiet from the royal families. She took Adalind away to have the child born, while giving her some herbs to slow the process down, telling her the must keep it secret from Prince Viktor.
However, it is later revealed that she has betrayed Adalind to the prince and plans to sell the child to him, she went to meet him to tell him that she was near pregnancy and if she wanted the baby born in the castle to bring her in now. Renard's spy discovered this and was able to organise an escape for Adalind. As such Prince Viktor had Stefinia dragged to him, he told her what occured, suspecting her of treachary. Stefania disagreed, making clear she new how dangerous a man he was, and told him the treachary had occured in his house not hers.
