Manuela Arcuri (born 8 January 1977, in

Anagni Anagni () is an ancient town and ''comune'' in the province of Frosinone, Latium, central Italy, in the hills east-southeast of Rome. It is a historical and artistic center of the Latin Valley. Geography Overview Anagni still maintains the appear ...

) is an Italian

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

and

soubrette A soubrette is a type of operatic soprano voice ''fach'', often cast as a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy". Theatre In theatre, a soubrette is a ...

. She was the protagonist of two successful TV series, ''

L'onore e il rispetto ''L'onore e il Rispetto'' is an Italian crime drama broadcast on Canale 5. It is composed of four seasons of six episodes each: the first aired in 2006, the second in 2009 and the third in 2012. The fourth season, initially scheduled for the fir ...

'' and '' Il peccato e la vergogna''.

Biography

Arcuri was born in Anagni, near

Frosinone Frosinone (, local dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is located about south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of the ...

, to a father from the

Province of Crotone The province of Crotone ( it, provincia di Crotone) is a province in the Calabria region of southern Italy. It was formed in 1992 out of a section of the province of Catanzaro. The provincial capital is the city of Crotone. It borders the provinc ...

and a mother from

Avellino Avellino () is a town and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

. Raised in

Latina, Lazio Latina () is the capital of the province of Latina in the Lazio region, in central Italy. , the city has 126,612 inhabitants and is the second-largest city of the region, after the national capital Rome. It was founded in 1932 under the fascist ...

from an early age, Manuela Arcuri, was often on the covers of tabloids. She has a black belt in karate. She was an attendee at former prime minister

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...

's private parties.Berlusconi's 'harem' named
, ''L'Unità'', 16 September 2011

TV career

At a very early age she was attracted to

show business Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since 1945), is a vernacular term for all aspects of the entertainment industry.''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989) From the business side (including managers, agents, produce ...

, and she became a fashion model; in 1995 she played parts in

soap operas A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

and in her first film, ''

Black Holes A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can defo ...

'' directed by

Pappi Corsicato Pappi Corsicato (born 12 June 1960) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. Selected filmography * ''Libera'' (1993) * ''Black Holes'' (1995) * ''The Vesuvians ''The Vesuvians'' ( it, I vesuviani) is a 1997 Italian anthology film direct ...

; then she had a supporting role in '' The Graduates'' directed by

Leonardo Pieraccioni Leonardo Pieraccioni (born 17 February 1965) is an Italian film director, actor, comedian and screenwriter. Born in Florence, he made his directorial debut with '' The Graduates'' (1995). In 1996 he directed his breakthrough film ''The Cyclone' ...

, and a major one in the comedy film '' Bagnomaria'' by

Giorgio Panariello Giorgio Panariello (born 30 September 1960 in Florence) is an Italian comedian, film and stage actor, director and television presenter. Biography Born in Florence to a father of Campanian origin, he raised in Cinquale, a seaside town in the prov ...

, which brought her to the attention of the moviegoing public. She continued acting in other movies and stage productions, such as ''A Pretty Story of a Woman'' e ''Liolà'' at the side of Gianfranco Jannuzzo and under the direction of Gigi Proietti. In 2000 Manuela Arcuri, now considered a

sex symbol A sex symbol or icon is a person or character widely considered sexually attractive.Pam Cook, "The trouble with sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde bombshell phenomenon", In: Bruce Babinigton (ed.), ''British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to ...

, appeared in a calendar for the magazine ''GenteViaggi''; the following year, she posed for another calendar, this time for the magazine ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

'', obtaining great success that consolidated her reputation and helped her land a role in the TV series ''

Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign poli ...

''. In 2001 she hosted 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' ...

'' with Gialappa's Band. In 2002, she co-hosted the

Sanremo 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 annua ...

alongside

Pippo Baudo Giuseppe Vittorio Raimondo Baudo (born 7 June 1936), known as Pippo Baudo, is one of the most famous Italian television presenters, with a career spanning six decades. He is often nicknamed "Superpippo" (referencing the Italian name of Super Go ...

and

Vittoria Belvedere Vittoria Belvedere (born 17 January 1972) is an Italian actress from Vibo Valentia in Calabria, southern Italy. She has appeared in several films but most of her work is television based. Career In 1992, she made her debut in the film ''In came ...

. In 2003, she co-hosted with Teo Teocoli and Anna Maria Barbera the eighth series of the TV comedy show '' Scherzi a parte''.

Theatre

*'' Liolà'' (2006) *'' Il primo che mi capita'' (2008) *'' A Pretty Story of Woman'' (2010)

Filmography

Television

References

External links

Official website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arcuri, Manuela 1977 births Living people Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico alumni Italian actresses Italian female models People from Latina, Lazio People of Calabrian descent