Originally from Italy, Francesca Fanti has been living in Los Angeles for more than twenty years and has been working in theater, film and TV productions in both countries. She can be seen in the FX TV show “American Crime Story – The Assassination of Gianni Versace” in the role of Franca Versace, mom of Gianni.
Fanti’s other notable US performances include a starring role in Bryan Singer’s critically acclaimed digital web series “H+” (2012-2013) and in Nine (2009) opposite Daniel Day Lewis. Fanti’s work in experimental media also includes a leading role performance in Distant Vision (2016), a live cinema production directed by Francis Ford Coppola as a month-long project at UCLA.
A versatile actor, Fanti has provided voice work for many projects including “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” (2012) and “John Wick: Chapter 2” (2017) and has appeared in numerous commercials with such celebrities as Herb Ritts, Elizabeth Taylor and Bob Richardson. Fanti’s theater achievements include a bold one-woman comedy show “Orgasmo Adulto Escapes From the Zoo,” written by Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo and his wife Franca Rame, for which Francesca won the ADA Artistic Director Achievement Award for Best Actress in a Comedy (in Los Angeles) and The Bay Area Critics Award for Best Solo Performance (in San Francisco, where the show was critically acclaimed, sold out and extended for months).
In Italy, Francesca worked with American character actor Vincent Schiavelli, presenting the show “Cc’era ‘Na Vota” in Sicilian dialect (not her own) to audiences in Sicily. She also guest- starred in the very popular Italian TV show “La Squadra.”
After seeing Francesca’s sterling performance of (another one-woman show) “Letters of Love” at the Italian Institute of Culture in Los Angeles, milestone writer Dacia Maraini invited Francesca to perform the show during special events and theatre festivals in Italy.
Francesca has also brought Maraini’s controversial play “Dialogue Between a Prostitute and Her Client” to critically acclaimed performances in Pasadena, California. She has written a film adaptation of this play, and she is currently developing two TV series: “Dating Valentina” (a comedy about divorce, single parenting and online dating debut) and “Missing Michael H.” (a drama based on the true story of a friend who recently went missing).