Isabella Ferrari

Isabella Ferrari — Biography

Isabella Ferrari, born Isabella Fogliazza on March 31, 1964, in Ponte dell'Olio in the province of Piacenza, was elected Miss Teenager at a discotheque contest at age fifteen and made her acting debut at seventeen as Selvaggia in the 1982 comedy Sapore di mare, going on to appear in its sequel as well. At the 1995 Venice Film Festival she won the Volpi Cup for Best Supporting Actress for The Story of a Poor Young Man, and she was later nominated for the David di Donatello award in both 2006 and 2008.

In Italy she is best known for playing Police Commissioner Giovanna Scalise in the first two seasons of the crime series Distretto di Polizia, broadcast from 2000 to 2002. She won the Marc'Aurelio d'Argento for Best Actress at the Rome Film Festival for And They Call It Summer, and has appeared in Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty and Parthenope. In 2021 she served on the international competition jury of the 74th Locarno Film Festival, and in 2025 she joined the cast of Bertrand Mandico's Roma Elastica. She lives in Rome and has three children: Teresa (b. 1995) with her first husband, Massimo Osti, and Nina (b. 1998) and Giovanni (b. 2001) with her second husband, director Renato De Maria.