Corrado Guzzanti

Corrado Guzzanti — Biography

Corrado Guzzanti is one of the best-known names in Italian television satire. He became famous for impersonating politicians, journalists and television personalities, and for inventing his own characters drawn from contemporary society; admirers in Italy have called him a genius of satirical comedy. His feature Fascisti su Marte carried that world of characters onto the big screen.

He began in the theatre, writing material for his sister Sabina. In 1988 he worked with Antonio Ricci, and in 1989 he joined Serena Dandini's satirical troupe, appearing in La TV delle ragazze and then the cult programme Avanzi. His impression of Vittorio Sgarbi and his horror-film director Rokko Smithersons made his name; from the mid-1990s, alongside Dandini, he turned to political sketches lampooning figures such as Emilio Fede and created characters like Quelo and the poet Brunello Robertetti. In 2002 he directed his first personal television project, Il caso Scafroglia. Its sketches about Fascists on Mars were shown in Venice in 2003 and grew into the film Fascisti su Marte, released in 2006.

In 2010 he received the Forte dei Marmi Political Satire Award. As an actor he has appeared in La Passione, A Bigger Splash, Ogni maledetto Natale and La prima pietra, played Papa Benedetto XIV in The Legend of the Christmas Witch 2: The Origins, and took part in the Italian LOL: Last One Laughing in 2021. He is the son of journalist and senator Paolo Guzzanti.