Anna Kanakis ( el, Άννα Κανάκη) (born in 1962 in

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

) is an Italian

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

and

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...

Early life

Kanakis was born in Messina on 1 February 1962 to a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

father from

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

and a mother from Messina. She was

Miss Italy Miss Italia is a beauty pageant awarding prizes every year to young, female contestants from Italy. Since the first edition of the contest in 1939 many of the contestants have gone on to notable careers in television and film. History The foreru ...

in 1977 at only 15 years old. She made her last appearance in 1981.

Career

Acting

Kanakis' worked in cinema as early as 1980, in a couple of minor films before picking up more recognized credits in 1983. By 1989, her career transitioned to consistent work on television in series and features.

Literary works

Kanakis wrote ''You're So Mine When You Sleep''.

Politics

Kanakis had a stint as national leader of Culture and Entertainment in the

Democratic Union for the Republic The Democratic Union for the Republic ( it, Unione Democratica per la Repubblica, UDR) was a short-lived Christian-democratic and centrist political party in Italy. It was founded in February 1998 by Francesco Cossiga (former Prime Minister and ...

Personal life

Kanakis was previously married in 1981 to composer Carlo Simonetti. The marriage only lasted few years after 1981. She has since 2004 been married to Marco Merati Foscarini a descendant of one of the last doges of Venice. Kanakis has no children.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Official site
* 1962 births 20th-century Italian actresses 21st-century Italian actresses Italian beauty pageant winners Italian female models Italian film actresses Italian people of Greek descent Italian television actresses Living people Miss Europe Miss Universe 1981 contestants Actors from Messina Models from Sicily {{Italy-actor-stub