Vito Coppola (born 27 September 1992) is an Italian dancer and choreographer. He is best known for appearing as a professional dancer on the 16th series of Italian dance competition (''Dancing with the Stars'') in 2021 and ultimately winning the competition with

Arisa Rosalba Pippa (born 20 August 1982), better known by her stage name Arisa, is an Italian singer, actress, and television personality. Early life Arisa was born in Genoa. A week after her birth, her family moved back to their original hometown, ...

. Since 2022, he has served as a professional on ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

'', the British version of the show, from the 20th series onwards, winning in 2023 with his celebrity dance partner

Ellie Leach Ellie Louise Leach (born 15 March 2001) is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Faye Windass on the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' between 2011 and 2023. Following her exit from the soap, she won the twenty-first series ...

. In 2024, Coppola won the 19th series of ''

Celebrity MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a British competitive cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine UK and Banijay and broadcast in 60 countries around the world. The show initially ran from 1990 to 2001 and was revived in 2005 as ''MasterChef Goes Large' ...

''.

Early life and competitive career

Coppola was born in

Eboli Eboli (Neapolitan language, Ebolitano: ) is a town and ''comune'' of Campania, southern Italy, in the province of Salerno. Eboli, an agricultural centre, is renowned for its olive oil and dairy products, most notably the famous buffalo mozzarel ...

, in

Salerno Salerno (, ; ; ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Campania, southwestern Italy, and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after Naples. It is located ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

on 27 September 1992. He has a younger brother, Jonathan. Coppola began dancing at the age of 6 and later competed in national championships. Coppola is a three-time World Championship finalist and a European Cup Winner. He won numerous competitions at provincial, regional and inter-regional level, and went on to win the first Italian championship at the age of 10 in the Juveniles category, as well as being selected by FIDS to represent Italy at the Team Match in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Coppola also won the second Italian championship in the Combined 10 dances, passing with a merit into the higher category.

Prior to his appearances on competitive dance series, Coppola worked as a dancer on the Italian version of ''
The Masked Singer ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
''. In 2021, Coppola joined the
Rai 1 Rai 1 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship television channel and is known for broadcasting ...
Italian dance television series as a professional for the 16th season. He was partnered with the singer and actress
Arisa Rosalba Pippa (born 20 August 1982), better known by her stage name Arisa, is an Italian singer, actress, and television personality. Early life Arisa was born in Genoa. A week after her birth, her family moved back to their original hometown, ...
and the pair were crowned winners of the series. Coppola did not return for the following series, his departure alluding to him becoming a professional on the British version.

Series 16: with Arisa

''Strictly Come Dancing''

In July 2022, Coppola was announced to be joining the 20th series of ''

'' as one of the professionals. Joining alongside

Carlos Gu Carlos Gu (; born January 1993) is a Chinese dancer and choreographer. He is best known for being a professional dancer on the British BBC One television series ''Strictly Come Dancing'' since 2022 and a small role in Waterloo Road. Life and car ...

Lauren Oakley Lauren May Oakley (born 28 February 1991) is an English professional dancer and choreographer, best known for appearing as a professional on the BBC One television series ''Strictly Come Dancing''. Early life Oakley was born on 28 February 1991 ...

and Michelle Tsiakkas, he said upon his appointment as a professional on the show, "

e was E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plu ...

really excited to become part of this family, adding that e could notwait to start this new adventure and to challenge imself ". For his first series, he was paired with singer-songwriter and presenter

Fleur East Fleur East (born 29 October 1987) is an English singer, songwriter, rapper and presenter. East competed on the second series of ''The X Factor'' in 2005 as part of the girl group Addictiv Ladies but was unsuccessful. In 2012, she signed with ...

. Together they received the first perfect score of the series. Coppola reached the final with East and the couple finished as runners-up behind

Hamza Yassin Hamza Ahmed Yassin (born 22 February 1990) is a British wildlife cameraman and presenter, known for his role as Ranger Hamza on the children's television channel CBeebies and his work on shows such as ''Countryfile'' and '' Animal Park'', as we ...

and

Jowita Przystał Jowita Maria Przystał (born 22 August 1994) is a Polish ballroom dancer. She is known for appearing and winning both ''The Greatest Dancer'' in 2020 and ''Strictly Come Dancing'' in 2022. She has been a professional on ''Strictly Come Dancing'' ...

, alongside

Helen Skelton Helen Elizabeth Skelton (born 19 July 1983) is an English television presenter appearing regularly on BBC1's '' Morning Live''. She co-presented the BBC children's programme ''Blue Peter'' from 2008 until 2013, and since 2014 has been a presen ...

and

Gorka Márquez Gorka Márquez (; born 4 September 1990) is a Spanish professional dancer, best known for appearing on the British dance show ''Strictly Come Dancing''. Early life Márquez began dancing at the age of 12, and in 2010 he represented Spain at the ...

, and

Molly Rainford Molly Anne Rainford (born 22 November 2000) is an English actress, singer and television presenter. She was a finalist on the Britain's Got Talent series 6, sixth series of ''Britain's Got Talent'' in 2012 and was one of the presenters on ''Fri ...

and

. Coppola returned for the 21st series. He was paired with former ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced ...

'' actress

, and the two of them eventually went on to win the series. In April 2024, Coppola headlined a charity dance show alongside his fellow ''Strictly Come Dancing'' professional Luba Mushtuk, with the profits going to

Macmillan Cancer Support Macmillan Cancer Support is one of the largest British charities and provides specialist health care, information and financial support to people affected by cancer. It also looks at the social, emotional and practical impact cancer can have, an ...

. Highest and lowest scoring per dance

Series 20: with Fleur East

Series 21: with Ellie Leach

Series 22: with Sarah Hadland

Personal life

Coppola is

multi-lingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monoling ...

and is fluent in English,

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, as well as his native language

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coppola, Vito 1992 births Living people Italian ballroom dancers Italian male dancers People from Eboli 21st-century Italian dancers Strictly Come Dancing winners