Francesca Prandi

Francesca was born in Rome yet had always dreamed about going to America. Her dream came true when she won a Dramatic Arts and Contemporary Dance scholarship at the University of Berkley, California. From California she then moved to Madrid, where she trained at the Drama Academy Proyecto Piamonte, directed by Pedro Almodovar, John Strasberg and Jaime Chiavarri. Wherever she lived - no matter if it was New York, Paris or Rome - her acting training continued, invited by Arthur Penn to the Actor's Studio and sharpening her instrument with Susan Batson, Geraldine Baron, Joseph Ragno and Michael Margotta. Francesca made her debut on the stage in Madrid with Jorges Berlanga's "La Caida de el imperio de Madrid". She then played in "Bad Science", directed by Arnold Barkus, a Paris production which then was produced for the Edinburgh Theater Festival. Her film career began in Spain on "Matador" by Almodovar, later in France she was given her first leading role in 1988 in Francesca Comencini's "La Lumiere du Lac" starring alongside Nicole Garcia, legends Jean Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud. In the same year she starred in Giuseppe Bertolucci's "Amori in corso" (Love in progress), which won Best movie and gave her her first Best Actress prize at the Salsomaggiore Film Festival in Spain. In 1989 she played the role of a 17th century peasant possessed by the devil after being bitten by a tarantula in "St. Paul's bride", directed by Gabriella Rosaleva. She was also the protagonist of "Corsica!" a political movie by Giorgio Molteni, alongside Gianmarco Tognazzi shown as "Fuori programma" at the Venice Film Festival 1991. She has also worked with important international directors such as John Frankeneimer in his action-movie on Moro's kidnapping "The Year of the Gun", as the antagonist to Sharon Stone, Valeria Golino and "O ultimo mergulho" by Joao Ceasar Monteiro, in competition at Venice Film Festival in 1994. In 2004 Francesca started writing scripts. She co-wrote with Anthony Souter the "Belugy Twins" developed by Hugo Films (FR). Being more and more interested in developing quality film projects she founded that same year the production company "Alphapictures Ltd." with the intent of developing and producing international popular art house movies. From 2015 Francesca has now returned to her first love, acting - working in the popular Italian series "Squadra mobile", for cinema Michael Radford's film "Music of Silence" and the international series directed by John Cassar : Medici: Masters of Florence.