Simona Tabasco

Simona Tabasco is an Italian actress who gained international recognition for her performance in the second season of the HBO black comedy-drama anthology series The White Lotus. She is also known for her work in Italian television and film, including the neo-noir movie Perez. and the Rai 1 medical drama series Doc – Nelle tue mani.

Tabasco was born in Naples on 5 April 1994. She is the daughter of an office worker and an advertising graphic designer, and she has a twin brother named Marco. Early in her career, she attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, though her studies were interrupted by her filming commitments.

Her acting career began in 2013 after participating in two short films at the Giffoni Film Festival. This led to her casting as Aida Merlissi, a Muslim girl, in the second season of the Rai 1 teen drama series Fuoriclasse, which aired in March 2014. Because of repeated absences caused by filming for the series, she was expelled from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.

Tabasco made her feature film debut in 2014 in Edoardo De Angelis's critically acclaimed Perez. In the film, she played Tea, the daughter of the protagonist Demetrio, portrayed by Luca Zingaretti. Beginning in 2020, Tabasco joined the cast of the medical drama Doc – Nelle tue mani as Elisa Russo, an internal medicine resident.

In 2022, Tabasco achieved international prominence playing Lucia Greco, a sex worker in Sicily, in the second season of The White Lotus. Her performance earned critical praise from outlets such as CNN and Nylon magazine. For her work on the series, she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series alongside her castmates, and she received a 2023 Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

Following her breakthrough in The White Lotus, Tabasco received further professional recognition. In March 2023, Forbes magazine featured her on its annual 30 Under 30 list highlighting influential individuals in Europe. Her subsequent acting projects include being cast alongside Sydney Sweeney in the psychological horror film Immaculate in February 2023, and becoming attached to a prospective film project titled Cloud One in May 2024.