Biography Maria Grazia Cucinotta was born on July 27, 1969 in Messina, Italy.
Maria began working as a model in Milan when she was only 16 years old, during the summer holidays. When she finished school, she abandoned modelling and auditioned for the tv show "Indietro Tutta". She was taken for the part of the odalisque. And that's how her television career began. Meanwhile, Maria took acting lessons, and was taken on by an acting agency. 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. Soon she started getting the first scripts and among these she chose "I Laureati" (1995), by Leonardo Pieraccioni, which turned out to be enormously successful. 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"(1996), by Fabrizio Giordani, "Italiani" (1996), by Maurizio Ponzi, followed by the television movie "Padre Pap" (1998).
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