JULY 23rd

Biography

Micaela Ramazzotti is an Italian actress, screenwriter and producer. She was born on January 17, 1979 in Rome (Italy). She is married to Paolo Virzì and she is his inspiring muse. She played the part of a rough telephone operator in the movie Tutta la vita davanti. She also starred in the movie La prima cosa bella as a character inspired by the mother of Ovosodo’s author, i.e. an absent-minded mother. Michaela Ramazzotti made her debut when she was 13 years old, in the photo novels of the weekly teen magazine “Cioè”. In 1999, she made her screen debut with La prima volta, a movie directed by Massimo Martella. In the same period, she obtained a small part in La via degli angeli di Pupi Avati and a small role in Vacanze di Natale 2000. The following year, she played Zora la vampira, a roman artist whom Dracula falls in love with. She also experimented with different genres other than cinema and in 2014, she was in Max Pezzali’s video clip: Il mondo insieme a te, drawn by the same-name song played by the italian band 883’s lead singer. Awards soon began to arrive, the most important of which is the Revelation Actress of the Year at the 63rd Venice film exhibition for her interpretation of Veronica in the movie Non prendere impegni stasera, released in 2006. Specifically, the stories of people in their 40s and 50s dealing with their ghosts and the unresolved issues of their everyday life. Over the two following years, she starred in some fictions produced by Mediaset, such as R.I.S. 3 - Delitti Imperfetti, Crimini bianchi and L'ultimo padrino, acting alongside Michele Placido. She was nominated for the David di Donatello for her part in Tutta la vita davanti in which she acted alongside Valerio Mastandrea under the direction of Paolo Virzì, with whom she fell in love and got married in 2009.

In 2010, she was awarded with the Ciak d’oro for the movie Questione di cuore directed by Francesca Archibugi, in which she plays the part of a mechanic’s wife and she also played the part of a moralizing and pedantic nurse in Ce n’è per tutti directed by Luciano Melchionna. Furthermore, she also acted in another movie produced by her husband, Paolo Virzì, for which she was awarded the David di Donatello for Best Supporting Actress. In 2010 she performed in a movie by Pupi Avati, Il cuore grande delle ragazze which was released in 2011. In 2012, she was in the movie Posti in piedi in paradiso direceted by Carlo Verdone as co-protagonist alongside Pierfrancesco Favino, Marco Giallini and Verdone himself. Thanks to her role as a lunatic cardiologist with relationship issues, she was awarded the Nastro d’Argento for Best Actress in 2012. She played a lead role as mother of the director Daniele Luchetti in the semi-autobiographical movie Anni felici, followed by Più buio di mezzanotte, directed by the newcomer Sebastiano Riso. In 2015 she worked for two female directors: Francesca Archibugi, Il nome del figlio, and Giorgia Farina, who wanted her as lead actress in Ho ucciso napoleone. She was then protagonist of a bizarre friendship with Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in the new movie directed by Virzì, La Pazza Gioia, the touching story of two disturbed women escaping from a therapeutic community for women with mental disorders. She worked with Paola Cortellesi in the comedy Qualcosa di nuovo by Cristina Comencini. In 2017, she played Elio Germano’s wife in the movie La tenerezza, directed by Gianni Amelio and inspired by the novel “La tentazione di essere felice” written by Lorenzo Marone. The following year, she played the part of a shy secretary and ghostwriter who finds herself mixed up in a story bigger than herself in Una storia senza nome directed by Roberto Andò. In 2019 she performed for Francesca Archibugi in Vivere and in 2020 she was one of the protagonists in Gli anni più belli directed by Muccino and Maledetta primavera by Elisa Amoruso. In 2021 she played a part for Michele Placido in L’ombra di Caravaggio, which is scheduled to be released in the next few months. During the same year, she played one of the lead roles in 7 donne e un mistero directed by Alessandro Genovesi. In 2022 she directed her own movie for the first time, Felicità which will be released in 2023. In 2022 she also played Lea Garofalo in the Disney+ series The Good Mothers, scheduled for the next year.

Acknowledgments

• 2010 David di Donatello for Best Lead Actress in La prima cosa bella
• 2010 Nastro d’argento for Best Lead Actress in La prima cosa bella
• 2012 Nastro d’argento for Best Lead Actress in Posti in piedi in paradiso 
• 2015 Nastro d’argento for Best Supporting Actress in  per Il nome del figlio
• 2016 Nastro d’argento for Best Lead Actress in La pazza gioia