Rocco Papaleo

Antonio Rocco Papaleo was born in Lauria, Basilicata. He moved to Rome as a young student to attend university, and began to take his first steps in the entertainment world as a cabaret performer, comedian, theatre actor, singer and musician. He had a long career - both theatrical and cinematographic that included over 60 films and TV series and over 30 plays.

In 2010 he made his directorial debut "Basilicata Coast to Coast" - a choral and musical comedy, a surreal and picaresque on the road journey. Papaleo directed and starred himself together with Alessandro Gassman, Paolo Briguglia, Max Gazzè and Giovanna Mezzogiorno achieving great success with audiences and critics. The film brought him a David di Donatello award, a Nastro d'Argento and a Globo d'Oro as "Best Debut Director" in 2011. The soundtrack composed by Rita Marcotulli and Rocco Papaleo won a David di Donatello, a Nastro d'Argento and a Ciak d'Oro for the "Best Soundtrack". In 2013 he returned to directing with the film "Una piccola impresa meridionale", which not only he wrote with Valter Lupo, but also co-starred alongside Riccardo Scamarcio, Barbora Bobulova, Sarah Felberbaum, Claudia Potenza and Giovanni Esposito; the soundtrack to the film also features precious contributions from Rita Marcotulli and Erica Mou. The novel with the same name as the film was released at the same time, co-written by Rocco Papaleo and Valter Lupo. In 2016 the film, "Onda su Onda", shot in Uruguay, saw Alessandro Gassmann, Luz Cipriota and Massimiliano Gallo starring alongside Papaleo, which marked his third work as a director. On April 13th, 2023 "Scordato", his new film as a director and a screenwriter (again together with Valter Lupo) was released, starring Giorgia, Simone Corbisiero, Angela Curri and Papaleo himself.

As a musician and singer, in 1997 Rocco Papaleo released the album "Che non si sappia in giro", of which he is the interpreter and author of both music and lyrics. In 2012 the album "La mia parte imperfetta" (Sony Music) was released containing 12 tracks with music and lyrics by Rocco Papaleo in collaboration with Valter Lupo and his musicians. After winning the Gaber Prize, in memory of the late Giorgio Gaber (or "Il Signor G" as he was called) and his genre of "theatre-song", he was the conductor of the 2012 and 2013 editions of the prize. He has been touring Italy for many years with theatre-song performances including "Buena Onda", "Piccola impresa meridionale" and "Coast to coast" (directed by Valter Lupo).

Papaleo participated in multiple theatrical performances as an actor including "Un aria di famiglia" directed by Michele Placido (1998), "Eduardo al Kursal" directed by Armando Pugliese (2001/02/03/04), "Eduardo più unico che raro" directed by Giancarlo Sepe (2010/11) and "Peachum" directed by Fausto Paravidino (2021/2022) and more recently, "L'ispettore generale" based on Nikolai Gogol.

His television career includes presenting the Sanremo Festival together with Gianni Morandi in 2012, tv show "Zelig" with Michelle Hunziker in 2014 and appearing in DopoFestival with Anna Foglietta and Melissa Greta Marchetto and tv show "Maledetti amici miei" with Giovanni Veronesi, Alessandro Haber and Sergio Rubini in 2019.