Ludovica Martino

The Chance of Translation

Ludovica Martino was born in Rome in the winter of 1997 with a firm plan to work with languages. She wasn't looking for the spotlight or red carpets. She enrolled in a degree in Translation and Interpreting, and film was only a complementary training at Jenny Tamburi's acting school. But casting directors saw something in her gaze that didn't fit in a simultaneous interpreting booth.

She accepted her first professional role in 2015 for the series Tutto può succedere. It was a modest debut. She balanced studio shoots with her English and Russian exams at university because she didn't fully trust acting to be a stable career.

The Italian industry stopped seeing her as a student.

In 2018, the project that broke her anonymity arrived. The Italian version of Skam was looking for fresh faces to adapt the Norwegian phenomenon, and Martino landed the role of Eva Brighi. The series didn't just succeed in Italy. It was distributed through digital platforms, and her face began appearing on screens across Europe.

And the gamble paid off.

The transition to genre cinema

After the success of the teen drama, the actress sought projects that would take her away from the high school image. In 2019, she shot Il campione alongside Stefano Accorsi. It was a necessary step to prove her range could carry the weight of the big screen. She was no longer just the girl from the hit series.

In 2020, she starred in Sotto il sole di Riccione. This Netflix production put her on the commercial map beyond her home country. The film reached 10 million views in its first few weeks. But Martino didn't want to be stuck in lightweight summer comedies.

She explored darker territory in Lovely Boy during 2021. The film drew her into the world of trap music and addiction in Rome. It was a demanding shoot that required a level of dramatic restraint she had not shown before. International audiences took notice.

But historical cinema came knocking on her door too.

In 2021, she appeared in Il mio corpo vi seppellirà, a outlaw drama set in Italy in 1860, in which she plays a woman seeking revenge. The production stood out for its raw visual style and for finally moving her away from her image as a teen star.

Recent Projects and Figures

In 2022, she returned to comedy with I peggiori giorni. It is an episodic film that dissects social hypocrisy during the holidays. She shared the cast with major names of Italian cinema such as Anna Foglietta and Renato Carpentieri, and her name began appearing regularly in the casting lists of bigger-budget productions.

She graduated from university in 2021 while filming two series at the same time. She didn't abandon her studies despite a schedule that required her to travel all over Italy. For her, academic training was always a safety net against the volatility of the film industry.

In 2023, she worked on the series Vita da Carlo. This show, created by Carlo Verdone, explores the life of the director and Roman comedian himself. Martino plays his daughter in a plot that blends reality with a parody of the entertainment industry.

And he didn't stop there.

During 2024, she took part in the filming of Guglielmo Tell, directed by Nick Hamm. This international film features a cast that includes Claes Bang and Connor Swindells. The production was shot mainly on location in the Alps and had a budget of 20 million euros.