Riccardo Scamarcio

Riccardo Dario Scamarcio is an Italian actor and film producer born on 13 November 1979 in Trani, Apulia. He is widely recognized for his work across Italian television and film, as well as international film productions.

Scamarcio is the son of Emilio Scamarcio, a food sales representative, and Irene Petrafesa, a painter. To pursue acting, he moved to Rome to train at the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema, and he continues to reside in Rome.

His acting career began with a debut role in a television series in 2000. He achieved his first lead role in a feature film with Luca Lucini's Three Steps Over Heaven in 2004. The film established him with Italian-speaking audiences, particularly younger viewers, and brought him attention as a sex symbol. Following this breakthrough, he appeared in Fausto Paravidino's Texas in 2005 and joined the cast of Michele Placido's Romanzo Criminale, portraying a monosyllabic thug character.

In 2006, Scamarcio appeared in the Canale 5 television series The Black Arrow, adapted from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. His film roles expanded in 2007 with appearances in Giovanni Veronesi's Manual of Love 2, Luis Prieto's Ho voglia di te, and Abel Ferrara's Go Go Tales. He also starred in Daniele Luchetti's My Brother Is an Only Child, based on Antonio Pennacchi's novel Il fasciocomunista, which earned Scamarcio a David di Donatello nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Between 2007 and 2009, Scamarcio began work on several additional films, including Sergio Rubini's At a Glance and The Cézanne Affair, the latter co-starring his then-partner Valeria Golino. During this period, he also appeared in Giovanni Veronesi's comedy Italians, Michele Placido's 1968-set film The Big Dream, and Costa-Gavras's Eden à l'Ouest, playing an illegal immigrant.

Scamarcio later starred as the primary antagonist, Italian Mob boss Santino D'Antonio, in the feature film John Wick: Chapter 2. In 2018, he played the lead role in Euforia, directed by Valeria Golino, a role regarded as one of his top performances. In 2024, he played the lead character in the Netflix film Vanished into the Night, directed by Renato De Maria and co-starring Annabelle Wallis, which reached the platform's top 10 list in July 2024.

In his personal life, Scamarcio dated actress and director Valeria Golino from 2006 to 2016, and the two maintain a good bond and professional collaboration. He has a daughter born in 2020 with Angharad Wood. Since 2021, he has been in a relationship with Italian actress Benedetta Porcaroli.