Asia Argento was born in Rome, Italy, into a family of actors and filmmakers, both occupations which she has herself pursued. She made her
debut when she was only nine years old in
Sergio Citti's
Sogni e bisogni (1985). In
1988 she had the leading role in
Cristina Comencini's first film,
Sehnsucht nach Freiheit (1988), and was part of the cast of
The Church (1989), directed by
Michele Soavi. The following year she
played Nanni Moretti's daughter in
Wasserball und Kommunismus (1989) (also
directed by Moretti).
It was with
Endstation Mord (1992),
written and directed by Michele Placido,
that Asia's career really took off and she was able to move on from
playing very young girls to more mature, complex roles. The movie was
well-received at the Cannes International Film Festival. In
Aura (1993), she worked for the first
time with her father, famed Italian horror director
Dario Argento (her mother is one of
Argento's favorite actresses,
Daria Nicolodi, playing an anorexic girl
in search of her parents' killer.
Das Phantom der Oper (1998)
is the third film she has made with her father, the others being
Aura (1993) (filmed in the US) and
Das Stendhal Syndrom (1996).
Asia's absorbed, intense style of acting was well-used in
Giuseppe Piccioni's
Condannato a nozze (1993). In
1993 she co-starred in Carlo Verdone's
Perdiamoci di vista (1994)
in which she played Arianna, a physically disabled girl--an intricate,
difficult role that won her the David di Donatello for best actress
(1993-1994). She also had a featured role in the international cast of
Die Bartholomäusnacht (1994), directed
by Patrice Chéreau. In 1995 she worked
with Michel Piccoli in
Peter Del Monte's
Die Reisegefährtin (1996),
which again won her a David di Donatello and a Grolla d'oro.
In 1994 Asia turned her hand to directing and turned out two short
films: "Prospettive" (an episode of the film
De Generazione (1994)) and "A
ritroso". In 1996 she directed a documentary on her father and, in
1998, one on cult director Abel Ferrara,
Abel/Asia (1998), which won an award at
the Rome Film Festival. In 1999 Asia made her feature-directing debut
with Scarlet Diva (2000), in which
she was the leading actress and author of the screenplay. The film was
released in May 2000 in Italy and the rest of the world. It won an
award at the Williamsburg Film Festival in Brooklyn, New York. In 2001,
after directing a number of music videos, she gave birth to her first
daughter, Anna Lou. In 2002 she starred in
Red Siren (2002) by
Olivier Megaton with
Jean-Marc Barr and the action
thriller xXx - Triple X (2002), directed by
Rob Cohen, with
Vin Diesel.
Asia is also the author of a number of short stories published in many
prestigious magazines such as "Dynamo," "L'Espresso," "Sette," and
"Village," Her first novel, "I Love You, Kirk," was published in Italy
by Frassinelli Editrice in October 1999 and in France by Florent Massot
in 2001.
