Simona Cavallari

A beautiful brunette with dark, almond-shaped eyes, Simona Cavallari backs up her sex symbol image with a smart, direct acting style. Developing an early interest in acting in her native Rome, she made her television debut at the age of 11 with a small role in the 1982 TV movie "Colomba," followed by three years later by a more substantial part in the brother versus brother mafia drama "Pizza Connection," her first big-screen credit. Her first starring role came in the Italian-Hungarian co-production "La sposa era bellissima" in 1987. In 1989, she moved into more mature roles in the dark comedy "The Sleazy Uncle"; the same year, she played a key part in the fourth installment of the epic Mafia drama "La piovra" as the naive daughter of a businessman who unwittingly enters into a marriage of convenience with a criminal mastermind who aims to take over her father's corporation. Two years later, the erotic drama "18 anni tra una settimana" definitively ended her years as a teen ingenue; she later was briefly engaged to her co-star on this film, Kim Rossi Stuart. Continuing to work steadily, Cavallari moved primarily into television movies and guest appearances on popular TV series in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2009, she garnered her first starring role in a TV series as the lead of the action drama "Squadra antimafia - Palermo oggi."