Maria Grazia Cucinotta Bomis Ring

Maria started working as a model in Milan, during the summer holidays, when she was 16. When she finished school, she abandoned modelling (She didn't like it because they only used her image, not her head) and auditioned in Rome for the tv programme "Indietro Tutta" by Renzo Arbore: She was taken for the part of the odalisque.

And that's how her television career began. Meanwhile, Maria took acting and elocution lessons, to get rid of her Sicilian accent, and was taken on by an acting agency, while, however, continuing to work on television in order to earn a living and therefore be able to study.

While movie auditions were almost always a failure, the ones for advertising went well and she started to shoot one advertisement after the other: they proved excellent to learn the techniques, meet international directors, and make herself known abroad.

The first person to believe in Maria and to be brave enough to invest in an unknown actress was Massimo Troisi who chose her for the movie "Il Postino": this gave her the possibility to make herself known as an actress not only in Italy but all over the world.

That's when she started getting the first scripts; among these she chose "I Laureati", by Leonardo Pieraccioni, which turned out to be enormously successful. Soon after, she shot "Italiani", by Maurizio Ponzi, followed by the television movie "Padre Papà" for Canale 5.

Then she left for the States, to be present at the Oscars, where "Il postino" received many nominations. When she returned to Italy she shot "Il Sindaco", by Fabrizio Giordani.