Simona Tabasco

Simona Tabasco didn't get into film through mystical calling or family legacy. In 2014, she auditioned for Perez. almost on a whim and ended up stealing the spotlight from Luca Zingaretti.

That Venice debut put the spotlight on a young woman from Naples who until then had only thought about studying design. Italian critics noticed a natural quality that you can't learn in drama schools, but that she came by naturally.

And the gamble paid off.

The Rhythm of Public Television

For years, she worked the daily grind of Italian television drama. She joined Fuoriclasse and later È arrivata la felicità, quietly and with the steady consistency of a craftsman. Italian audiences embraced her as a familiar face before the rest of the world knew how to pronounce her last name.

In 2020, she played Elisa Russo in Doc – Nelle tue mani. This medical drama was a ratings hit across Europe and gave her the hands-on experience needed to handle technical dialogue under pressure. But her real training ground was the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, where she learned that technique matters more than ego.

On set, she prefers silence before stepping into a scene.

The Sicily Breakout

Mike White was chosen by the producers for the second season of The White Lotus in 2022 for a specific reason. They were looking for someone who could play Lucia Greco with a mix of street-smart charm and vulnerability, without falling into the caricature of the scheming Italian hustler. Tabasco filmed in Taormina alongside Beatrice Grannò, and together they built a dynamic that stole the show from the main storyline.

Her performance earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2023. Suddenly, casting offices in Los Angeles started asking about the actress who spoke Italian with a thick accent and gestured with her hands as if she were conducting an orchestra.

It was an absolute change of scale.

Blood and Convents in 2024

In 2024, she moved away from dark comedy and into psychological horror with Immaculate. She shared the screen with Sydney Sweeney in a physically demanding, dark shoot that was a world away from the glossy luxury hotel settings. Playing Sister Mary required a restrained register that few expected after seeing her high energy on HBO.

That same year, she took part in L'isola degli idealisti, directed by Elisabetta Sgarbi. The film adapts the novel by Giorgio Scerbanenco and brings Tabasco back to a more intellectual and less commercial Italian cinema. The production had a tight budget, but its dramatic weight required shooting ten-minute scenes without cuts.

Before filming, she reads the script aloud three times in a row to catch pacing problems. Fame for its own sake doesn't interest her; she prefers control over her downtime at her home in Rome.

In 2024, her contract with the agency WME in the United States remained in effect to manage large-scale international projects.