Advanced search

Luca Guadagnino was born on 10 August 1971 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is a director and producer, known for Challengers (2024), Call Me by Your Name (2017) and Suspiria (2018).

Dario Aita was born on 25 January 1987 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is an actor and director, known for Master Ceccato (2018), Giovanni Neve: Astronavi da crociera (2021) and Camini (2021).

Vincenzo Amato was born on 30 March 1966 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is an actor, known for Unbroken (2014), Golden Door (2006) and Respiro (2002).

Isabella Ragonese was born on 19 May 1981 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. She is an actress and director, known for Tutta la vita davanti (2008), The First Assignment (2010) and Like Sheep Among Wolves (2023).

Daniela Giordano was born on November 7, 1946 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Giordano attended school in Milan, Italy, where she lived with her family for ten years before returning to Palermo at age fourteen. Daniela was the winner of several local beauty pageants in her home town of Palermo and, in the wake of winning the 1966 Miss Italia contest at age nineteen, finished in second place in the 1967 Miss Europe contest. Giordano went on to work as a model prior to acting in her first movie in 1967. Among the notable directors that Daniela acted in films for are Mario Bava, León Klimovsky, Alfonso Brescia, Luigi Cozzi, Sergio Martino, and Paul Naschy.

Enrico Lo Verso was born on 18 January 1964 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is an actor, known for The Way We Laughed (1998), Hudson Hawk (1991) and Captain Alatriste: The Spanish Musketeer (2006). He has been married to Elena Montagna since 29 July 1989. They have one child.

Gerlando Buzzanca, best known as Lando Buzzanca, is an Italian theatrical, film and television actor, whose career spanned over 55 years. Born in Palermo the son of a cinema projectionist, at 16 years old Buzzanca left the high school and moved to Rome to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. In order to survive, he took many jobs including waiter, furniture mover, and a brief appearance as a slave in the film "Ben-Hur". He made his official debut in Pietro Germi's "Divorce, Italian Style", and soon specialized in the role of the average immigrant from southern Italy. After two successful "James Tont" films in which he played a parody of James Bond, starting from the late 1960s, Buzzanca got a large success in a series of satirical commedia sexy all'italiana films which satirized major institutions such as politics, religion, trade unions and financial world. With the decline of the genre, he slowed his film activities, focusing into theatre and television, in which he enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the 2000s thanks to a series of well-received TV-series. In 2013, following the death of his wife Lucia and a heavy depression, Buzzanca attempted suicide by cutting his veins. In 2015 he has fully recovered from depressive period undertaking a relationship with a younger woman, Antonella. In 2016 he participates as dancer in the television program "Ballando con le stelle" and lives a new and intense romance with a younger actress and journalist Francesca della Valle.

Salvatore Ficarra was born on 27 May 1971 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for L'ora legale (2017), Once Upon a Time in Bethlehem (2019) and Il 7 e l'8 (2007). He has been married to Rossella Leone since 20 May 2006. They have one child.

Roberto Andò was born on 11 January 1959 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for The Confessions (2016), Long Live Freedom (2013) and Strangeness (2022).

Claudio Gioè was born on 27 January 1975 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is an actor, known for Ti racconto una storia (2005), Passato prossimo (2003) and Mafia Only Kills in Summer (2016).

Luigi Lo Cascio was born in Palermo on 1967 and graduated at Silvio D'Amico Acting Academy in Rome. He is one of the most important and appreciated Italian actors.

He played in several films among which: "I cento passi" (2000) and "La meglio gioventù" (2003) by Marco Tullio Giordana, "Noi credevamo" by Mario Martone (2010), "Il più bel giorno della mia vita" (2002) and "La bestia del cuore" (2005) by Cristina Comencini, "Il dolce e l'amaro" by Andrea Porporati (2007), "Buongiorno notte" (2003) by Marco Bellocchio, "Il capitale umano" by Paolo Virzì (2014), "I nostri ragazzi" by Ivano De Matteo (2014), "Il nome del figlio" by Francesca Archibugi (2015), "Smetto quando voglio - Masterclass" and the sequel "Smetto quando voglio - Ad Honorem" by Sydney Sibilia (2017), "Lacci" by Daniele Luchetti, film "Il mangiatore di pietre" by Nicola Bellucci, "Spaccaossa" by Vincenzo Pirrotta, "La stranezza" by Roberto Andò, "Chiara" by Susanna Nicchiarelli

In 2012 he directed his first film "La città ideale" which was presented at the 69th Venice International Film Festival - Settimana della Critica, for which in 2013 he was nominated for the David di Donatello and Nastri d'Argento Awards as Best First Time Director.

In 2020 "The Traitor" by Marco Bellocchio was in competition at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Thanks to the interpretation of the Mafia repentant Salvatore Contorno he won a Nastro d'Argento Award as Best Supporting Actor and a David di Donatello Award as Best Supportin Actor. The film is the Italian entry in the 2020 Oscar Awards.

In theatre, in recent years, he performed in "Dracula" and "Delitto/Castigo" by Sergio Rubini, "Gilgamesh. L'epopea di colui che tutto vide" by Giovanni Calcagno and "Pà" directed by Marco Tullio Giordana.

In 2018 he published his first book "Ogni ricordo un fiore" published by Feltrinelli.

In 2022, he also stars in the series "The Bad Guy" directed by Giancarlo Fontana and Giuseppe G. Stasi and distributed on Amazon Prime Video in which he plays the magistrate Nino Scotellaro, who later assumes the identity of Balduccio Remora.

In 2023, he stars alongside Alessandro Borghi in the film "Delta" directed by Michele Vannucci and publishes his second book "Storielle per granchi e per scorpioni" published by Feltrinelli.

He won many awards in his career including in 2001 the David di Donatello Award as Best Actor for "I cento passi", the Coppa Volpi Award as Best Actor in "Luce dei miei occhi", in 2004 the Nastro d'Argento as Best Actor for "La meglio gioventù". In 2019 he won the Nastro d'Argento as best supporting actor for "Il Traditore" and in 2020 the David di Donatello as best supporting actor.

Luigi Lo Cascio currently lives in Rome.

Francesco Scianna was born on 25 March 1982 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is an actor, known for Baaria (2009), Angel of Evil (2010) and Ben-Hur (2016).

Giulia Andò was born in 1988 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. She is an actress, known for Cenerentola (2011), Strangeness (2022) and The Confessions (2016).

Maurilio Mangano was born in September 1980 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is a casting director and actor, known for Mussolini: Son of the Century (2024), Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara (2023) and Maria (2024).

Paolo Briguglia was born on 27 May 1974 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is an actor and director, known for El Alamein - The Line of Fire (2002), Chiamatemi Ishmael (2011) and Caesar (2002).

With to Totò and Peppino De Filippo, Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia has been the best couple of the Italian comic cinema. Both sicilian, of Palermo, began on the roads of sicilian city, in the tradition of the ballad singer and the actors of the Comedy of the Art. Scenes, imitations, witticism, movements of puppet that entertained the public gather around they. One of the interpretations more celebrates of Franco Franchi was the parody of Hitler: years after, in 1967, will re-propose it in the movie "Due marines e un generale", with Buster Keaton to his last film. The debut of the couple happens in 1954, to the theatre "Costa" of Castelvetrano (Trapani, Sicily). The execute a parody centralized on the song "Core 'ngrato". Ciccio tries to sing the song but he's often interrupted by Franco. The sketch collects much success because has got all the necessary one to true comic actor - the mimic art, the ability to invent witticismes, the comic times - and also for the scene in which Franco transformed him in the precisest balance.

To the definition of the two personages has contributed Lucio Fulci, that directed them for the first time in 1962, in "I due della legione straniera". Was their first movie as protagonists, but - like the director in an interview has remembered - the film-producer, the Titanus, in that moment in phase of relaunching, did not think that it could to meet with success; for this reason don't appear like film-producer. The film instead obtained very success and so the producer decide to appear in the new edition of the movie. Franco and Ciccio are launched in a series of movies and many parodies of every kind: from the Western to the Action, the Thriller to the Comedy. When Sergio Leone direct "Per un pugno di dollari" and "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo", Franco and Ciccio are the protagonists of "Per un pugno nell'occhio" and "Il bello, il brutto, il cretino". To the movie "Indovina chi viene a cena", a manifesto of the antiracism in the American society, of the end of the Sixty, Franco and Cicco answer with "Indovina chi viene a merenda". In 1972, they play the parody the Thriller; that one of the DarioArgento of "Il gatto a nove code" (more "the American" of "the animal" trilogy). Directed by Richard Kean (Osvaldo Civirani), is "Due gattoni a nove code... e mezzo ad Amsterdam", in the part of two photographers to the center of an intrigue, after to have photographed a man. In 1973, Franco, directed by Nando Cicero, is the protagonist of "Ku fu? Dalla Sicilia con furore", parody of "Dalla Cina con furore", the movie with Bruce Lee.

In 1975, Ciccio directs and interprets "L'Esorciccio", parody of "L'Esorcista", whose popularity and consideration from part of the critic increase proportionally with pass of the years. Beside he there is not Franco; to his place Lino Banfi, that began to define the personage with which has become famous. To part the surrealistic scene of beginning, with Ciccio, archaeologist, that discovers the famous medallion, from which part all the vicissitude, the movie is characterized from a series of original ideas - the location in the Latium province, the passage of the object, the final scene - than renders one of the more amazing parodies in the italian cinematography, and initiator of a kind ("Frankenstein Junior", by Mel Brooks, is of some year after). Their cinematographic activity has been frantic, above all from the half to the end of Sixties. Between 1964 and the 1966 interpreted approximately forty films. To this purpose, they did not lack to remember the frenzy during this period, when they were found again to work also in three movies in the same day and to change the dresses of scene in car, during the movement from a set to the other. In kind it was be a matter of movie in which the script was reduced to the minimum and the film-producer counted on their ability to make all the movie, in order to reduce the costs and therefore the financings, knowing that then however at least it would have tripled to box-office the investment. Franco and Ciccio worked very much, accepting all the script proposed. Because - they remembered with pride and bitterness - feared to remain without job. They knew the value of the job, because had known the poverty.

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia, have the first role to outside of the sort until then followed. With to Totò, they recite in "Che cosa sono le nuvole?", third episode of the movie "Capriccio all'italiana" (1967). Ciccio had all the characteristics for being also interpreter of personages different from those of Italian comedy. In "Amarcord", Federico Fellini entrust to him the part of a man with a from the troubled destiny, perhaps the personage more famous of this movie. The face of Ciccio Ingrassia was a commutabile mask from the comicality to the drama, natural, whose distinguishing features seemed remodeled with the life, from first part of the his existence, that one of the poverty of never "calm" people, never "normal" ("La violenza: Quinto potere", direct by Florestano Vancini, 1972). A awfully sicilian face, popular and aristocratic. To half of Seventies, Franco and Ciccio had a period in which the their careers will proceed in separate way. But soon they resumed the way in common, landing in television, where they were protagonists of many varieties of success to the beginning of Eighties.

In 1985, the director Jean Jacques Annaud, for the selection of the actors for "Il nome della rosa", had chosen FrancoFranchi in order to interpret the part of "Salvatore", deformed monk, former follower of a heretic, then ends again in the presence of Inquisition. Franco refused the part - great opportunity of international renown - because did not want the public, accustomed to his traditional image, saw he in the cloth of a personage that must to be repulsive to the limits of the horror. Like for every other naturally comic actor, the art by Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia was founded on a complex articulation, derived from their history and from their experiences, which, also develop on the side of the irony, were also the premise for the ability to recite in dramatic or surrealist contexts. Franco died on the 9 December 1992, and his funeral happened in the historical center of Palermo, and was attended by many citizens. Ciccio died on the 28 April 2003.

Giulia Maenza is an Italian actress born in Palermo in 1999. At 14 years old, while she was training on a running track, a sport that she has been practicing since she was a kid at a competitive level, she was noticed by a woman who suggested she get portrayed by a professional photographer. After her debut at Versace Fashion Show in Milan, she started an international career as a model. Her passion for cinema was born on the set of the fashion film "Cinemagia" by Bulgari, in which Giulia interpreted old cinema divas. That's when she decided to pursue her career as an actress. In 2016 she was in the tv series "La mafia uccide solo d'estate" by Luca Ribuoli, with Anna Foglietta, and in 2018 she was in "La regola d'oro" by Alessandro Lunardelli with Barbora Bobulova and Edoardo Pesce. In 2022 she was among the main characters of the film "Il filo invisibile" by Marco Puccioni. In 2024 we will see her starring in the Manetti Bros' new feature film entitled US Palmese and in Ludovica Rampoldi's film entitled "Breve storia d'amore".

Aldo Baglio was born on 28 September 1958 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for Three Men and a Leg (1997), Ask Me If I'm Happy (2000) and Il grande giorno (2022). He is married to Silvana Fallisi. They have two children.

Crescenzo Giacomo Notarile, from Palermo Sicily, was raised in 'Graves End', Brooklyn New York. He lives in Los Angeles California, and in Soho New York, and has been bi-coastal for the past 35 years. He is a member of I.A.T.S.E. Local 600, and has been for 35 years. Crescenzo is also a member of the ASC, the American Society of Cinematographers, along with being a member of the AIC, the Association of Italian Cinematographers. He has won a National Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography' for 'Opening Teaser', and was Emmy nominated for 'Best Achievement in Cinematography' for 'One Hour Drama' for Gotham, along with two ASC Award nominations for Best Cinematography. Crescenzo is also a recipient of Canon's most prestigious 'Explorer of Light' Award, and nominated for the I.A.T.S.E. 'Billy Bitzer Award'. Crescenzo is also a Fine Art Photographer, has a book recently published by Cinematic Pictures Publications, and has won countless photography awards for: Master Cup Annual Photography Awards, Black and White Spider Awards, International Color Awards, PX3 Public Choice Awards, Prixe de La Photographie Fine Art Awards, and the International Lucie Awards... He has a '911 Mural' that is on permanent display at the 911 Memorial Archive Museum of the City of NY. Crescenzo has photographed and directed countless music videos for the world leading recording artists, along with commercials for the top leading Advertising Agencies around the globe. Crescenzo currently has been involved for the past several years with the Star Trek franchise, shooting domestically and internationally.

Fausto Russo Alesi was born on 13 October 1973 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for The Double Hour (2009), Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara (2023) and The Traitor (2019).

Emmanuele Aita was born on 28 October 1983 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is an actor, known for The Good Apprentice (2016), Suburra: Blood on Rome (2017) and Godard Mon Amour (2017).

Pia Giancaro was born on 12 March 1950 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. She is an actress, known for Boccaccio (1972), Tosca e altre due (2003) and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972). She was previously married to Sforza Marescotti Ruspoli di Cerveteri.

Aurora Quattrocchi is an Italian actress born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1943. She debuted as a theater actress in the 70s but she has been very active in cinema and television too. She was directed by some of the most talented and awarded italian directors such as Giuseppe Tornatore, Marco Tullio Giordana, Emanuele Crialese, Mario Martone and Roberto Andò. She also worked on tv series such as: "La vita rubata", "Il giovane Montalbano", "La mafia uccide solo d'estate" and "Fratelli Caputo".

Fabio Grassadonia was born on 8 June 1968 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is a writer and director, known for Sicilian Ghost Story (2017), Salvo (2013) and Rita (2009).

Sergio Friscia was born on 27 April 1971 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is an actor and manager, known for Squadra antimafia - Palermo oggi (2009), Corleone (2007) and Il delitto Mattarella (2020).