Biography

Monica Guerritore is an actress, playwright and director. She made her stage debut at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan in 1974 at the age of 16, as Ania in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard directed by Giorgio Strehler, and since then she has never left the stage. She was Jocasta, Lady Macbeth, Ophelia, Miss Julie and Marianne from Scenes from a Marriage directed by Gabriele Lavia. Under Giancarlo Sepe's direction she was Madame Bovary, Carmen and The Lady of the Camellias. She starred as Judy Garland in Peter Quilter's End of The Rainbow (2015). Guerritore is also the director and playwright of Joan of Arc (2004-2008) (on stage in France) and Mi chiedete di parlare (2011-2013), about Italian journalist and author, Oriana Fallaci. In 2019 she directed and performed in the critically acclaimed The Good Person of Szechwan by Brecht. Then in 2023, she adapted for the stage, directed and starred in Federico Fellini's Ginger & Fred. In 1976 Guerritore landed her first leading role in Manon Lescaut (1976) on the Italian public television (RAI) and since then she was the lead in several successful TV shows such as Lovers and Secrets (2004), Saint Augustin (2010), Saturday Sunday Monday (2012) by Eduardo de Filippo. In cinema she starred in Verga's She Wolf (1996) and earned a nomination for Best Actress at the 1997 David di Donatello Awards. She also starred in Ferzan Ozpetek's A Perfect Day (2008). For her work in Ivano De Matteo's La Bella Gente (2009) she was nominated for Best Actress at the Nastri d'Argento Awards, while the film was awarded the Grand Prix at the Annecy Film Festival in 2009. She achieved worldwide success with the Netflix series Deceitful Love (2024), which topped the non-English-language chart for three weeks straight upon its release. Anna (2025), her first feature film as a director, about Anna Magnani, premiered at the Rome Film Festival in October 2025 and got its theatrical release in November 2025 in Italy. In 2023 she co-founded with her husband, Roberto Zaccaria, LuminaMGR, a next-generation independent production company. President of the Campiello Book Prize in 2014. In 2011 she was named Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for her commitment in the fields of Art and Culture by Giorgio Napolitano, President of Italy. She is the author of two books: La Forza del Cuore (The Power of the Heart), ed. Mondadori, 2010, and Quel che so di lei (What I Know About Her), ed. Longonesi, 2019.