Edoardo Ballerini
Encyclopedia
Edoardo Ballerini is an actor
, writer
and director
. He is best known for his work on screen as junkie Corky Caporale in The Sopranos
(2006–2007), a hotheaded chef in the indie hit Dinner Rush
(2001), and an NFL businessman in the blockbuster Romeo Must Die
(2000). He has appeared in numerous films and television series, from I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) to the upcoming No God, No Master (2010) and Martin Scorsese's Boardwalk Empire (2010). His directorial debut, Good Night Valentino, premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival
. Ballerini starred in the film as silent film idol Rudolph Valentino
.
(1995). Two years later, he starred in the John Leguizamo
comedy The Pest
(1997) and, after that, in (Whit Stillman
's The Last Days of Disco
, 1998) and (Amos Kollek
's Sue
, 1998).
's Dinner Rush
(2001) opposite Danny Aiello. The film grossed only $638,227 but received largely positive reviews. Internationally, the film did much better and broke into the top ten in box office receipts in Japan in 2003.
. The film premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival
and was entered into the permanent archive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
in Los Angeles. The film was also presented at the National Museum of Cinema
in Turin, Italy in 2009 as part of a Valentino retrospective. Emily Leider, in her biography Dark Lover (Farrar, Strouss & Giroux, 2003), wrote that Ballerini "infuses his [Valentino] with exactly the right mix of pride, elegance, grace and anguish... on screen, Ballerini's resemblance to Valentino is uncanny." A feature length script written as a follow-up Ballerini's Valentino short has recently been optioned by producer Andrew Lauren.
Ballerini was also cast as another famous 1920's Italian, the anarchist and labor leader Carlo Tresca
, in No God, No Master (2011).
, and an American mother. He grew up between New York City and Milan, Italy. He is a dual citizen, and bilingual. His early schooling took place in New York, at P.S. 41 and later Friends Seminary
, before he left home at age 14 for boarding school. From there, he attended Wesleyan University
. The summer following his graduation with Honors, Ballerini was given a scholarship to study Latin in Rome. In Italy, he discovered a group of ex-pat actors who were forming a theater company. He joined the troupe. The following fall he attended regular acting classes in New York at HB Studios
and The Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. He later became an observer at The Actor's Studio. After living for several years in New York, Ballerini moved to Los Angeles in 2000 before eventually returning to New York, where he continues his career.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
. He is best known for his work on screen as junkie Corky Caporale in The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
(2006–2007), a hotheaded chef in the indie hit Dinner Rush
Dinner Rush
Dinner Rush is an independent feature film, written by Brian S. Kalata and Rick Shaughnessy. Directed by Bob Giraldi. It stars Danny Aiello as a restaurateur-bookmaker in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood and Edoardo Ballerini as his son, the restaurant's star chef...
(2001), and an NFL businessman in the blockbuster Romeo Must Die
Romeo Must Die
Romeo Must Die is a 2000 martial arts film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. Starring Jet Li, Aaliyah, Anthony Anderson, Delroy Lindo, Isaiah Washington, Russell Wong, and features action and fight choreography by Corey Yuen...
(2000). He has appeared in numerous films and television series, from I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) to the upcoming No God, No Master (2010) and Martin Scorsese's Boardwalk Empire (2010). His directorial debut, Good Night Valentino, premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
. Ballerini starred in the film as silent film idol Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
.
Early roles
Edoardo Ballerini's first professional role was as an autistic teenager on Law & OrderLaw & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
(1995). Two years later, he starred in the John Leguizamo
John Leguizamo
Jonathan Alberto "John" Leguizamo is an Colombian-American actor, producer, voice artist, and comedian.-Early life:...
comedy The Pest
The Pest
The Pest is a 1997 American comedy film inspired by the classic short story "The Most Dangerous Game". Comedian John Leguizamo plays a Puerto Rican con artist in Miami, Florida named Pestario Rivera Garcia Picante Salsa Vargas who agrees to be the human target for a racist German manhunter for a...
(1997) and, after that, in (Whit Stillman
Whit Stillman
Whit Stillman is an American writer-director known for his sly depictions of the "urban haute bourgeoisie" Whit Stillman (born John Whitney Stillman on January 25, 1952) is an American writer-director known for his sly depictions of the "urban haute bourgeoisie" Whit Stillman (born John Whitney...
's The Last Days of Disco
The Last Days of Disco
The Last Days of Disco is a 1998 sardonic comedy-drama film written and directed by Whit Stillman and loosely based on his travels and experiences in various nightclubs in Manhattan, including Studio 54. The film concerns a group of Ivy League and Hampshire graduates falling in and out of love in...
, 1998) and (Amos Kollek
Amos Kollek
Amos Kollek is an Israeli film director, writer and actor.-Biography:Amos Kollek was born in Jerusalem. He is the son of Teddy Kollek, the long-time mayor of Jerusalem. Kollek studied psychology and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He became interested in film after working as a...
's Sue
Sue
Sue or SUE may refer to:* Door County Cherryland Airport in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, USA* The action of filing a lawsuit.* Subsurface Utility Engineering* .sue, alternative name for ARC -Places:...
, 1998).
Major roles
Ballerini was cast as a "star chef" in Bob GiraldiBob Giraldi
Bob Giraldi is an American film and television director best known for directing the music video for Michael Jackson's song "Beat It." His work has garnered many accolades, including several , , NY International Awards, Addy Awards, and hundreds of Clio Awards...
's Dinner Rush
Dinner Rush
Dinner Rush is an independent feature film, written by Brian S. Kalata and Rick Shaughnessy. Directed by Bob Giraldi. It stars Danny Aiello as a restaurateur-bookmaker in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood and Edoardo Ballerini as his son, the restaurant's star chef...
(2001) opposite Danny Aiello. The film grossed only $638,227 but received largely positive reviews. Internationally, the film did much better and broke into the top ten in box office receipts in Japan in 2003.
Valentino
The same year, Ballerini wrote, directed and starred in a short film about 1920's film icon Rudolph ValentinoRudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
. The film premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and was entered into the permanent archive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
in Los Angeles. The film was also presented at the National Museum of Cinema
Mole Antonelliana
The Mole Antonelliana is a major landmark of the Italian city of Turin. It is named for the architect who built it, Alessandro Antonelli. In Italian "Mole" indicates a building of monumental proportions. Construction began in 1863, soon after Italian unification and was completed 26 years later,...
in Turin, Italy in 2009 as part of a Valentino retrospective. Emily Leider, in her biography Dark Lover (Farrar, Strouss & Giroux, 2003), wrote that Ballerini "infuses his [Valentino] with exactly the right mix of pride, elegance, grace and anguish... on screen, Ballerini's resemblance to Valentino is uncanny." A feature length script written as a follow-up Ballerini's Valentino short has recently been optioned by producer Andrew Lauren.
Ballerini was also cast as another famous 1920's Italian, the anarchist and labor leader Carlo Tresca
Carlo Tresca
Carlo Tresca was an Italian-born American newspaper editor, orator, and labor organizer who was a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World during the decade of the 1910s. Tresca is remembered as a leading public opponent of fascism, stalinism, and Mafia infiltration of the trade union movement...
, in No God, No Master (2011).
Theater
Ballerini made his first professional appearance on stage as a child in 1980 at Theater for the New City, New York, in Mario Prosperi's "Uncle Mario." He subsequently joined the Italian Commedia dell'Arte troupe "I Giullari di Piazza" for several performances. Stage credits as an adult include John Jesurun's "Chang in a Void Moon" (The Kitchen), "The End of Cinematics" (St. Ann's Space), "Crossroads" (The Henry Street Settlement), and several pieces in "The Eugene O'Neill Project" (The Actors Studio, The Eugene O'Neill Center).Audiobooks
Ballerini is also a frequent narrator of audiobooks. Titles include "Z," by Michael Thomas Ford (Harper Collins); "The Moscow Club," by Joseph Finder (Macmillan); and "West of Here," by Jonathan Evison (Highbridge).Personal life
Edoardo Ballerini was born to an Italian father, the poet Luigi BalleriniLuigi Ballerini
Luigi Ballerini, born in Milan in 1940, currently living in New York and Los Angeles, is an Italian poet, professor of modern and contemporary Italian Literature at UCLA and a historian of gastronomy. He is the father of actor Edoardo Ballerini....
, and an American mother. He grew up between New York City and Milan, Italy. He is a dual citizen, and bilingual. His early schooling took place in New York, at P.S. 41 and later Friends Seminary
Friends Seminary
Friends Seminary is an elite private day school in Manhattan. It is owned and controlled by the New York Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. The school, the oldest continuous coeducational school in New York City, serves 694 college-bound day students in Kindergarten through...
, before he left home at age 14 for boarding school. From there, he attended Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
. The summer following his graduation with Honors, Ballerini was given a scholarship to study Latin in Rome. In Italy, he discovered a group of ex-pat actors who were forming a theater company. He joined the troupe. The following fall he attended regular acting classes in New York at HB Studios
HB Studios
HB Studios is a video game development company, founded in July 2000 by Jeremy Wellard, and located in Nova Scotia, Canada.-History:HB's headquarters are located in the small town of Lunenburg on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. The company started with nine developers working on Cricket 2002 for...
and The Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. He later became an observer at The Actor's Studio. After living for several years in New York, Ballerini moved to Los Angeles in 2000 before eventually returning to New York, where he continues his career.
Filmography
- No God, No Master (2011)
- Boardwalk Empire (2010)
- Trophy Kids (2010) (uncredited)
- Life is Hot in CracktownLife Is Hot in CracktownLife Is Hot in Cracktown is a 2009 crime drama film based on Buddy Giovinazzo's eponymous 1993 collection of short stories. Giovinazzo directed and wrote the film.-Plot:...
(2009) - Batman: The Brave and the BoldBatman: The Brave and the BoldBatman: The Brave and the Bold is an American animated television series based in part on the DC Comics series The Brave and the Bold which features two or more super heroes coming together to solve a crime or foil a super villain...
(TV, 2009) (voice) - The Caller (2008)
- Moonlight (TV, 2008)
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TV, 2008)
- No Exit (2008)
- The SopranosThe SopranosThe Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
(TV, 2006–2007) - Protect and Serve (TV Pilot, 2007)
- Without a TraceWithout a TraceWithout a Trace is an American television drama which originally ran on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009. The series was set in New York City and concerned a fictitious FBI Missing Persons Unit.-Premise:...
(TV, 2006) - El Cortez (2006)
- MediumMedium (TV series)Medium is an American television drama series that premiered on NBC on January 3, 2005, and ended on CBS on January 21, 2011. Themed on supernatural gifts, its lead character, Allison DuBois , is a medium employed as a consultant for the Phoenix, Arizona district attorney's office...
(TV, 2006) - A Year and a Day (2005)
- Freezerburn (2005)
- The F Word (2005)
- CharmedCharmedCharmed is an American television series that originally aired from October 7, 1998, until May 21, 2006, on the now defunct The WB Television Network. The series was created in 1998 by writer Constance M...
(TV, 2004) - Threat MatrixThreat MatrixThreat Matrix is a 2003 American drama television series. It lasted 16 episodes. The plot consisted of the events in a United States Homeland Security anti-terrorism unit, led by Special agent John Kilmer....
(TV, 2003) - Good Night Valentino (Short, 2003)
- Malevolent (2002)
- 2424 (TV series)24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
(TV, 2002) - NYPD BlueNYPD BlueNYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
(TV, 2002) - Going to California (TV, 2002)
- Drowning Lessons (Short, 2002)
- Free (2001) (uncredited)
- Dinner RushDinner RushDinner Rush is an independent feature film, written by Brian S. Kalata and Rick Shaughnessy. Directed by Bob Giraldi. It stars Danny Aiello as a restaurateur-bookmaker in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood and Edoardo Ballerini as his son, the restaurant's star chef...
(2001) - Romeo Must DieRomeo Must DieRomeo Must Die is a 2000 martial arts film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. Starring Jet Li, Aaliyah, Anthony Anderson, Delroy Lindo, Isaiah Washington, Russell Wong, and features action and fight choreography by Corey Yuen...
(2000) - Homicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
(TV, 1999) - Suits (1999)
- Looking for an EchoLooking for an Echo-Plot:The lead singer of an oldies group reminisces about the good ol' days and a potential comeback.-Cast:*Armand Assante – Vince 'Vinnie' Pirelli*Diane Venora – Joanne Delgado*Tom Mason – Augustus 'Augie' MacAnnally III...
(1998) - Vig (1998)
- The Last Days of DiscoThe Last Days of DiscoThe Last Days of Disco is a 1998 sardonic comedy-drama film written and directed by Whit Stillman and loosely based on his travels and experiences in various nightclubs in Manhattan, including Studio 54. The film concerns a group of Ivy League and Hampshire graduates falling in and out of love in...
(1998) - The Substitute 2: School's Out (1998)
- SueSueSue or SUE may refer to:* Door County Cherryland Airport in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, USA* The action of filing a lawsuit.* Subsurface Utility Engineering* .sue, alternative name for ARC -Places:...
(1997) - The PestThe PestThe Pest is a 1997 American comedy film inspired by the classic short story "The Most Dangerous Game". Comedian John Leguizamo plays a Puerto Rican con artist in Miami, Florida named Pestario Rivera Garcia Picante Salsa Vargas who agrees to be the human target for a racist German manhunter for a...
(1997) - I'm Not RappaportI'm Not RappaportI'm Not Rappaport is a play by Herb Gardner originally staged by Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1984. Its Broadway debut production, directed by Daniel Sullivan, starring Judd Hirsch, Cleavon Little, Jace Alexander, and Mercedes Ruehl, opened on November 19, 1985 at the Booth Theatre, where it ran...
(1996) - 5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas (1996)
- The PallbearerThe PallbearerThe Pallbearer is a 1996 American romantic comedy film starring David Schwimmer, Gwyneth Paltrow, Toni Collette, Michael Vartan, Michael Rapaport, and Barbara Hershey. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival....
(1996) - I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)
- Law & OrderLaw & OrderLaw & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
(TV, 1995)