Gabriel Garko

Gabriel Garko — Biography

Born Dario Gabriel Oliviero, Gabriel Garko came into the world on 12 July 1972 in Turin to a Venetian father and a Sicilian mother, and was raised in the nearby town of Settimo Torinese. After being named Italy's top male model in 1991, he moved into acting toward the end of the 1990s, starting out in television with productions such as Vita coi Figli, Troppo Caldo and Angelo Nero. He drew wider attention with the 2002 film Callas Forever opposite Fanny Ardant, and that same year appeared alongside Anna Galiena in Tinto Brass's Senso '45. His real breakthrough came in 2006 with the series L'onore e il rispetto, in which he played mob boss Tonio Fortebracci; the drama ran across several further installments through 2017 and made him one of Italy's most recognizable television actors. Other notable television roles include the World War II-set Il peccato e la vergogna (2010), opposite Manuela Arcuri, and the police thriller Viso d'angelo (2011); he has also appeared on stage in Quel che sapeva Maisie and Odio Amleto. In 2016 he co-hosted the Sanremo Music Festival alongside Carlo Conti, Mădălina Ghenea and Virginia Raffaele. He publicly came out as bisexual in September 2020.