Luca Zingaretti

Luca Zingaretti (born 11 November 1961 in Rome, Italy) is a celebrated Italian actor and film director whose career spans over four decades, making him one of the most recognizable faces of contemporary Italian television and cinema. After abandoning an early stint with Rimini Football Club at age seventeen, he enrolled at the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio D'Amico, graduating in 1984 and immediately immersing himself in theatre work with renowned director Luca Ronconi, appearing in classics such as Three Sisters and Titus Andronicus. His screen debut came in 1987 with a minor role in Gli occhiali d'oro, but it was the ferocious character Ottorino in Marco Risi's Il branco (1994) that first attracted critical notice, followed by a notable performance alongside Sabrina Ferilli in Vite strozzate (1996). The breakthrough that defined Zingaretti's international reputation arrived in 1999 when he was cast as Commissario Salvo Montalbano in the television adaptation of Andrea Camilleri's beloved detective novels; the series, still in production, has produced more than thirty‑six films and cemented his status as a cultural icon across Europe and beyond. Beyond Montalbano, he has delivered acclaimed performances in Alla luce del sole (2005), earning both a David di Donatello and a Karlovy Vary Best Actor award, and in Il figlio più piccolo (2010), for which he received a Nastro d'Argento as supporting actor. Zingaretti has also directed several stage productions and documentary projects, demonstrating a versatile artistic range that includes voice work for the Italian versions of Finding Nemo and Finding Dory. His personal life includes two marriages—first to journalist Margherita D'Amico (1997‑2008) and later to actress Luisa Ranieri, with whom he shares two daughters.