Roberto Benigni was born in Misericordia (in the province of Arezzo), on the 27th of October 1952. When he was very young, he moved together with his family to Vergaio, a small fraction of Prato. He studied at the Datini Highschool, and then attended the Teatro Studio, that had been an important Pratese school, where many other theatre and cinema actors had grown up (amongst others Pamela Villoresi). At the age of 20, he decided to move to Rome, bringing with him a guitar and many dreams. He moved there with Silvano Ambrogi, Carlo Monni, and Aldo Buti, with whom he had debuted in the comedy "I Burosauri", by Silvano Ambrogi at the "Satiri Theatre". In collaboration with the director Giuseppe Bertolucci, he created the character of "Mario Cioni", in the monologue "Cioni Mario di Gaspare fu Giulia". This character, was recreated for the television show "Onda libera", and later for the much loved, but censored movie "Berlinguer ti voglio bene" (1977). The following year, he was a guest in the television program "L'Altra Domenica", in which Renzo Arbore was playing the role of an odd film critic. In 1979, he had a protagonist role in the film "Chiedo Asilo", by Marco Ferreri. In 1980, he was a guest at the Italian Song Festival "San Remo", and here he made a speech about the Pope, that aroused a lot of controversy. In that same year, he played a role in Arbore's film "Il Papocchio", and slightly later appeared in "Il Minestrone" by Sergio Citti. Besides his cinema and theatre activity, he also performed in many live shows. Wherever he performed, in Festivals or Squares, his performance was always a triumph. In 1983, for the first time he created his own film as a director: "Tu mi turbi". The first film, that made himself popular, even with those who considered him to be the "left wing jester", was "Non ci resta che piangere". Here he performed, together with the late lamented Massimo Troisi. From this point onwards, he had a lot of success, even more than he could have ever have expected. In 1986, he went to the States, where he performed with Toni Walts and John Lurie, in the film "Daunbailo'" by Jim Jarmush. Also, whilst in the States, he played in "Taxisti di Notte". In 1988 he directed another masterpiece: "Il piccolo diavolo", staring Walter Mattau. It was from this, that he started collaborating with Vincenzo Cerami. In 1989 he played as the protagonist, in Federico Fellini's last movie "La voce della luna", together with Paolo Villaggio. In 1990, he was the reciting voice in Prokofiev's "Pierino and the wolf", performed by the European Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Claudio Abbado for the "Ferrara Musica" Festival. In 1991, his film "Johnny Stecchino" had the highest record of takings for the Italians film (grossing over 40 thousand million lire). In 1993 he starred in the film "Il figlio della Pantera Rosa", by Blake Edwards. Shortly after, he directed, producer and acted of "Il Mostro". On the 2nd of August 1995, he began a new tour, that was entirely filmed, and with it, was made a home-video, directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci. In 1997, he produced "La vita e' bella", a tragic and altogether comic film, that was awarded the "Gran Premio della Giuria" at the 51st Cannes Festival, and awarded three Oscars (of which one was for the best foreign film). He starred in "Asterix and Obelix versus Cesare" together with Depardieu, Gassman and Letitia Casta. In 2001, he started in his new film. Here, finally, Benigni has worked as the character of Pinocchio, who he has always loved (in fact, he called his Film Production Company "Melampo", after Pinocchio's dog).