Corrado Guzzanti

Corrado Guzzanti — Biography

Corrado Guzzanti was born on 17 May 1965 in Rome, the son of journalist and senator Paolo Guzzanti and brother of fellow satirical actors Sabina and Caterina Guzzanti. He studied at Sapienza University of Rome and began his career writing theatre material for his sister Sabina, then joined Serena Dandini's satirical troupe in 1989.

Their television programme Avanzi (1991-1993) became one of the era's most influential cult shows, where he built a following through impressions of Vittorio Sgarbi and Gianni Minoli and invented characters such as Rokko Smithersons and Quelo. In 1997 he created a caricature TV host on Pippo Chennedy Show. Drawing on sketches about a Martian invasion from his 2002 programme Il caso Scafroglia, he directed Fascisti su Marte (Fascists on Mars), shown at the Venice Film Festival and released in 2006; in 2010 he received the Forte dei Marmi political satire award. As an actor he took supporting roles in La Passione (2010), A Bigger Splash (2015) and La prima pietra (2018), played Papa Benedetto XIV in The Legend of the Christmas Witch 2 (2021), and competed on the Italian edition of LOL: Last One Laughing.