Biography

She was born in Cagliari

Cagliari

Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...

, Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

, and initially wanted to be a doctor, but switched career paths to pageantry after twice failing the medical school entrance exams. She came fourth in the 1996 Miss Italy contest. Having moved to London, she fell in love with theatre and acting, saving up weekly to watch something in the West End theatre

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

.

Returning to Italy, she studied drama at the Scuola di Cinema e Teatro run by Francesca De Sapio

Francesca De Sapio

Francesca De Sapio is an Italian actress and acting coach.The daughter of an architect, she was born in Rome. After her fathers work took him to the United States, she started studying acting in Texas....

, between 1999 and 2000. She then appeared in stage productions of Richard III

Richard III (play)

Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...

and Italian language plays. She began her career in television in 2002, and then gained international fame after playing Solange Dimitrios in the 2006 adaptation

Casino Royale (2006 film)

Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the James Bond film series and the first to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond...

 of the James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 novel Casino Royale

Casino Royale (novel)

Casino Royale is Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel. It paved the way for a further eleven novels by Fleming himself, in addition to two short story collections, followed by many "continuation" Bond novels by other authors....

.

In early 2011, she co-starred with Rufus Sewell

Rufus Sewell

Rufus Frederik Sewell is an English actor. In film, he has appeared in The Woodlanders, Dangerous Beauty, Dark City, A Knight's Tale, The Illusionist, Tristan and Isolde, and Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence. On television, he starred in the 2010 mini-series The Pillars of the Earth...

 in the BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 TV series Zen

Zen (TV series)

Zen is a British television series produced by Left Bank Pictures for the BBC, co-produced with WGBH Boston for its Masterpiece anthology series, Mediaset and ZDF. It stars Rufus Sewell and Caterina Murino and is based on the Aurelio Zen detective novels by Michael Dibdin. The series was filmed on...

. Zen has since been cancelled, although it is airing in the US on Masterpiece Mystery Theater.

Selected filmography

• Nowhere (2001)
• Il Regalo Di Anita (2002)
• L'Enquête Corse (2004)
• L'Amour Aux Trousses (2004)
• Eleonora d'Arborea (2005)
• Les Bronzés 3 : Amis pour la vie
  Les Bronzés 3 : Amis pour la vie
  Les Bronzés 3: Amis pour la vie is a French film directed by Patrice Leconte and released in 2006. It is the fiftysomethings section, the third instalment, of the Bronzés trilogy - preceded by Les Bronzés and Les Bronzés font du ski....
  
  (2006)
• Vientos de agua
  Vientos de agua
  Vientos de agua is a 2006 cult Argentine- Spanish mini TV series created by Juan José Campanella. The drama traces a Spaniard's emigration to Argentina in the 1930s, and, years later, his son's return to modern-day Spain....
  
  (2006)
• Casino Royale
  Casino Royale (2006 film)
  Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the James Bond film series and the first to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond...
  
  (2006)
• St. Trinian's
  St Trinian's (2007 film)
  St Trinian's is the sixth in a long-running series of films based on the works of cartoonist Ronald Searle. The first five films form a series, starting with The Belles of St Trinian's in 1954, with sequels in 1957, 1960, 1966 and 1980....
  
  (2007)
• Il seme della discordia
  Il seme della discordia
  Il seme della discordia is a Golden Lion-nominated 2008 Italian film.The film is a modernisation of Heinrich von Kleist's novel The Marquise of O.- Plot :...
  
  (2008)
• The Garden of Eden (2008)
• XIII (2009)
• Zen
  Zen (TV series)
  Zen is a British television series produced by Left Bank Pictures for the BBC, co-produced with WGBH Boston for its Masterpiece anthology series, Mediaset and ZDF. It stars Rufus Sewell and Caterina Murino and is based on the Aurelio Zen detective novels by Michael Dibdin. The series was filmed on...
  
  (2011)

External links