| Asia
Argento
is a beautiful, talented, award-winning Italian actress.
Asia was born on 20th September 1975 at 8:07am-CEDT
in Rome, Italy. She is officially named "Aria"
since the registration office would not accept "Asia".
She's the daughter of the famous Italian horror director
Dario
Argento and
her mother is
Daria Nicolodi,
the famous stage and film actress and former-model.
Daria
Nicolodi co-wrote
Dario's gothic masterpiece "Suspiria".
Dario
two daughters,
Fiore
(Asia's half sister, now a successful shoe designer)
and Asia have starred in a half-dozen or so of his movies.
Asia
had another half sister, Anna
(Dario's
other daughter from his first marriage) who sadly died
in a scooter accident several years ago.
Asia
has a tattoo on
her ribs
in memory of Anna, she is said to miss her deeply.
Asia
wrote and published three books between the ages of
five and nine, it was at this tender age she started
her acting career. Appearing on television with the
feature called "Sogni
e Bisogni"
directed by Sergio
Citti on
the Italian RAI1 channel in 1984. She also starred in
"Buon
Natale"
directed by
Lugi Cozzi for
RAI3.
Since
then she's been in over fifteen movies.
She had a small part in Lamberto Bava's
"Demoni 2" ("Demons
2") and was part of the cast of "La
Chiesa"
("The Church") directed by
Michele Soavi.
In 1988 she had the leading role in Cristina Comencini's
first film "Zoo".
The following year she played Nanni Moretti's
daughter in "Palombella Rossa", which
was also directed by Nanni Moretti. After
"Le
Amiche del Cuore",
which was written and directed by Michele Placido,
Asia's career really took off and she was able to move
on from playing very young girls to more mature, complex
roles. The movie was well received at the Cannes
Film Festival.
In 1993 she co-starred in Carlo Verdone's "Perdiamoci
di Vista!" in which she played Arianna, a physically
disabled girl. It was an intricate, difficult role which
won her the 'DAVID
DI DONATELLO'
(the Italian Oscar) for best actress '93-'94. She also
had a featured role in the international cast of "La
Reine
Margot"
directed by Patrice Chereau.
Her
debut as a first assistant director came in 1994,
she turned her hand to directing two short films; Prospettive
(an episode of the film De Generazione) and A
ritroso.
In 1995 she worked with Michel Piccoli
in Peter Del Monte's Compagna di Viaggio,
she was awarded for best actress in the 41st
Annual 'DAVID
DI DONATELLO'
Awards in
1997, for her portrayal of Cora in the film.
That role also saw her awarded a 'GOROLLA
D'ORO'.
She's also won two 'CIAK',
an Italian 'GOLDEN
GLOBE'
when she was only twelve.
She's acted in French in "La
Reine Margot"
(1994) and in English, in "B.
Monkey"
(1998) by
director
Michael "Il
Postino"
Radford
and
starred in Abel
Ferrara's "New
Rose Hotel"
(1998) opposite Christopher
Walken
and Willem
Dafoe.
She
also won the
Rome Film Festival award
in 1988 for the documentary on Abel
Ferrara
Abel/Asia. In
1999 Asia made her directorial debut feature film entitled
"Scarlet Diva".
Asia played the lead actress and also wrote the screenplay,
it
was released in May 2000.
"Scarlet Diva" won an award at the
Williamsburg Brooklyn Film Festival.
The latest film to have starred Asia which was directed
by her father was his 1998 production of
Il
fantasma dell'Opera/The Phantom of the Opera.
Asia wrote the Animal Farm nursery rhyme which
features so strongly in Dario's giallo NonHoSonno.
After directing a number of music videos,
Asia gave birth to a baby girl named Anna
Lou on
June 20th 2001 in Lugano. Asia
named her daughter after her late sister Anna.
It has been said Anna Lou has her mothers
looks. The father is Asia's partner Morgan,
a musician from the Italian rock group Bluvertigo.
In 2002 she stars in the
action thriller XXX directed by Rob Cohen,
with Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson
and
La Sirčne rouge, directed by Olivier Megaton,
with Jean-Marc Barr.
Asia is also the author of a number of short stories
published in many prestigious magazines such as "Dynamo",
"L'Espresso", "Sette" and "Village".
Her first novel "I Love You Kirk" was published
in
Italy
October 1999
by Frassinelli Editrice and in France 2001
by
Florent Massot.
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