Paola Cortellesi (born 24 November 1973 in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
) is an Italian actress, singer, voice actress, and presenter. She has starred in about 20 movies as well as a number of theatrical shows, television shows, and radio shows.
Biography
Cortellesi debuted in the show business at the age of 13, as a singer for ''Cacao meravigliao'', the jingle of the popular
RAI
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
TV show ''Indietro tutta!'' by
Renzo Arbore
Lorenzo Giovanni "Renzo" Arbore (; born 24 June 1937) is an Italian television host, singer, actor and film director.
Career
Arbore became nationally recognized as radio anchor man, together with Gianni Boncompagni, in the late 1960s, with ...
. At 19 she began studying as an actress at the "Teatro Blu" in Rome (the same theatre school that
Kim Rossi Stuart
Kim Rossi Stuart (born 31 October 1969) is an Italian actor and director.
Early life and career
Rossi Stuart was born in Rome. His father, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Giacomo, was an actor of Italians, Italian and Scottish people, Scottish descent ( ...
,
Gianmarco Tognazzi
Gianmarco Tognazzi (born 11 October 1967) is an Italian actor.
Life and career
Born on 11 October 1967 in Rome, the son of actors Ugo Tognazzi and Franca Bettoia,Giorgio Dell’Arti, Massimo Parrini. ''Catalogo dei viventi''. Marsilio, 2009. . ...
,
Claudia Gerini
Claudia Gerini (; born 18 December 1971) is an Italian actress and singer.
Life and career
Born in Rome, Gerini won the National Competition of Miss Teenager in 1985. She got her first part in a film, ''La ballata di Eva'', at 14. She subsequ ...
,
Stefania Rocca, and
Claudio Santamaria
Claudio Santamaria is an Italian actor; in 2016 he was awarded the David di Donatello for Best Actor award for portraying the superhero Enzo 'Jeeg' Ceccotti in ''They Call Me Jeeg''.
Career
His cinema debut came in 1997, with Leonardo Pieracci ...
, among others, have attended).
She began her career in television with the show ''Macao'', presented by
Alba Parietti
Alba Parietti (born 2 July 1961) is an Italian television presenter, television personality, showgirl, actress and former singer.
Early life
Parietti was born on 2 July 1961 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, daughter of Francesco, a Piedmontese pa ...
, but eventually reached nationwide popularity as a comic actress in the TV show ''
Mai dire Gol
''Mai dire Gol'' was an Italian football television program of featuring Gialappa's Band, which was broadcast on Italia 1 from 18 November 1990 to 25 February 2001. The program was, at the beginning, the footballing version of Gialappa's Band's ...
'' by the
Gialappa's Band
Gialappa's Band is the name used by Marco Santin (born 11 February 1962 in Milan), Carlo Taranto (born 16 December 1961 in Milan), and Giorgio Gherarducci (born 1 November 1963 in Milan), the Italian trio of TV and radio commentators.
Overvi ...
(2000), which, in particular, showcased her skills at parodying famous people, a genre where she collected some of her most appreciated performances (the latest one being her parody of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
's mayor
Letizia Moratti in the 2010-2011 edition of the popular TV show ''
Zelig
''Zelig'' is a 1983 American mockumentary film written, directed by and starring Woody Allen as Leonard Zelig, a nondescript enigma, who, apparently out of his desire to fit in and be liked, unwittingly takes on the characteristics of strong per ...
'').
After ''Mai dire Gol'', Cortellesi has collaborated in several other TV Show of the ''Mai dire...'' franchise by Gialappa's Band. Other major performances of Cortellesi on television include the 2004 edition of the
San Remo Music Festival
The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual ...
and the leading role in the TV movie ''Maria Montessori: Una vita per i bambini'', a biography of
Maria Montessori
Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori ( , ; August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952) was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early age, Montessori e ...
, for which Cortellesi received the "Maximo Award" at the Roma Fiction Fest.
Her career in cinema includes several appreciated performances in comedies and comic movies, including a leading role in ''Tu la conosci Claudia?'', a very popular production starring the comic trio
Aldo, Giovanni e Giacomo. In 2008, she was nominated for the
David di Donatello award for
Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie ''
Piano, solo
''Piano, solo'' is a 2007 Italian drama film directed by Riccardo Milani. It is based on the book by Walter Veltroni ''Il disco del mondo - Vita breve di Luca Flores, musicista'' and it depicts real life events of jazz pianist and composer Luca ...
'' by Riccardo Milani. In 2011 she won the David di Donatello for
Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...
for her leading role in ''
Escort in Love
''Escort in Love'' ( it, Nessuno mi può giudicare, "Nobody can judge me") is a 2011 Italian comedy film directed by Massimiliano Bruno. Paola Cortellesi won the 2011 David di Donatello for Best Actress for her performance as Alice.
Plot
A weal ...
''.
One of her most appreciated theatrical performances was ''Gli ultimi saranno gli ultimi'' ("Last will be last") by
Massimiliano Bruno
Massimiliano Bruno (born 4 June 1970) is an Italian director, screenwriter, playwright and actor.
Life and career
Born in Rome into a family of Calabrian origins, Bruno formed as an actor in a drama laboratory "Torre Spaccata". He started hi ...
, which has been staged 189 times from 2005 to 2007 in over 50 theatres, and for which Cortellesi has collected a number of awards.
As a singer, Cortellesi has been described by
Mina as "one of the best Italian voices"
Mina: La migliore a Sanremo è Paola Cortellesi
/ref> and has cooperated with several notable Italian musicians, including Elio e le Storie Tese
Elio e le Storie Tese (; literally "Elio and the Troubled Stories"), often abbreviated EelST, was an Italian comedy rock band from Milan, formed in 1980. Its leader was Stefano Belisari, better known as Elio. They announced their split on 17 Oc ...
, Renato Zero
Renato Fiacchini (born 30 September 1950), known by the stage name Renato Zero (), is an Italian singer, songwriter, producer, dancer and actor whose career spans from the 1960s to the 2020s. Zero is the only artist to have reached the top of th ...
, Claudio Baglioni
Claudio Baglioni (; born 16 May 1951) is an Italian pop singer-songwriter and musician. His career has been going on for over 50 years. Some songs from the 70s are part of Italian culture such as ''E tu come stai?''. In the 80s he released the ...
, Frankie hi-nrg mc
Francesco Di Gesù (; born 18 July 1969), better known by his stage name Frankie Hi-NRG MC, is an Italian rap and hip hop artist of Sicilian descent, born in Turin and raised between Caserta and Città di Castello. He has been active since the e ...
, and Neri per Caso
Neri per Caso are an Italian a cappella musical group.
Career
The group formed in Salerno as Crecason in 1991 and consisted of six elements: Diego and Ciro Caravano (brothers), their cousins Mimì and Gonzalo Caravano (also brothers), Mario Cr ...
. In 2019 she was filmed in the titular role of ''Petra
Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to t ...
'' for the four-part Italian TV crime drama, broadcast from September 2020.
Cortellesi married director Riccardo Milani
Riccardo Milani (born 15 April 1958) is an Italian film and television director and screenwriter.
Life and career
Born in Rome, Milani began his career in 1985, as assistant director of Mario Monicelli in '' Let's Hope It's a Girl''.
After b ...
on 1 October 2011. The couple have a daughter, Laura, born 24 January 2013.
Filmography
Writings
* (both a book and a film)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cortellesi, Paola
1973 births
Living people
David di Donatello winners
Italian film actresses
Actresses from Rome
Italian stage actresses
Italian television actresses
21st-century Italian singers
21st-century Italian women singers