Cristiana Capotondi

Cristiana Capotondi — Biography

Cristiana Capotondi is an actress who began as a child after appearing in an ice-cream commercial and went on to make a place for herself in Italian television and cinema; she has also directed and has held a post in sports administration. The production that brought her forward was Notte prima degli esami (2006), in which she shared the lead with Nicolas Vaporidis. One of her more recent credits is Ferzan Özpetek's series Le fate ignoranti (2022).

Her career falls into several phases. The first was television: at thirteen she began with RAI's Amico mio and played in the later seasons of Orgoglio, and her first film role came in Vacanze di Natale '95 (1995). The second arrived in the mid-2000s: after Virginia, la monaca di Monza (2004), she played Claudia in Notte prima degli esami and Teresa in I Vicerè. In 2009 she played Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria-Hungary, in the ZDF, Rai Uno and ORF co-production Sisi. In the third phase comedy and period productions ran side by side: La Passione (2010), Kryptonite! (2011), Barabbas (2012) and Indovina chi viene a Natale? (2013); later came Tommaso (2016) and A Woman's Name (2018).

She studied communication sciences at Sapienza University in Rome, and her maternal grandfather was of Jewish background. She was the spokeswoman of the 2011 Giro d'Italia and for a time served as vice president of Lega Pro. She has received the Romy and Superciak d'oro awards and was made a Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.