Carlo Verdone

Carlo Verdone was born in Rome to Mario Verdone, an important Italian film critic and academic, and studied at the Italian Liceo classico in Rome, having the future actor Christian De Sica as his deskmate. Verdone earned a degree in Modern Literature at Sapienza University of Rome, the same university where his father taught, and a degree in Film Direction at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. During the 1970s he started a television career highlighting his varied comic style, while also appearing in ads for the Carosello show. He began introducing his characters on television in 1978 in the popular comedy series Non Stop.

Verdone made his debut as a director in 1980 with the movie Fun Is Beautiful, in which he played three different characters. He used the same formula of the first work in 1981, when he directed Bianco, rosso e Verdone, a movie about three different men during election day in Italy. The movie, produced by his mentor Sergio Leone, was very successful in Italy and had a soundtrack composed by Ennio Morricone. In 1982 he wrote and directed the successful and critically acclaimed romantic comedy Talcum Powder, which received multiple David di Donatello awards in Italy for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Score and Best Supporting Actor (to Angelo Infanti). It also won Silver Ribbons for Best Actress and for Best Score. He and Alberto Sordi wrote two Verdone films together: Journey with Papà, directed by Sordi, and Troppo forte, directed by Verdone and co-written as well by Sergio Leone. Since the 1990s, Verdone has tackled more serious subjects in his work, like the excesses of modern society and the individual's hardships in confronting it; some examples are Damned the Day I Met You (1992), My Best Enemy (2006) and Me, Them and Lara (2010). In 1999 he wrote the book "Fatti Coatti". In 2005 he took part in the Italian blockbuster romantic comedy named Manual of Love, and in the sequels named Manual of Love 2 (2007) and The Ages of Love (2011), both directed by Giovanni Veronesi, while in 2013 he starred in Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty. In 2018 he directed Blessed Madness, which he co-wrote with Nicola Guaglianone and the cartoonist and screenwriter Menotti.

In 1980 Verdone married Gianna Scarpelli, and they had two children together, Giulia (born 1986) and Paolo (born 1988). They separated in 1996. Verdone has two siblings: Luca, a film director, and Silvia, a film producer and wife of the actor Christian De Sica.