Biografia
Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, a native New Yorker, is an acclaimed actress and multimedia artist with a dedicated international fan base.
Raised in a family of opera professionals, she began performing in her father's opera company at just three years old. As a child, she relocated to Rome, Italy, where she spent her formative years. She later returned to the United States after receiving a scholarship to The Second City's renowned Training Center for Improvisation in Chicago, IL, a launchpad for many top comedic talents such as Tina Fey, Steve Carell, and Mike Myers.
Cataldi-Tassoni is widely recognized for her roles in films like Opera, Mother of Tears, The Dirt, and Phantom of the Opera, working with esteemed European directors including Dario Argento, Pupi Avati, and Lamberto Bava.
In 2011, she starred in Baggage Claim, directed by Golden Globe winner Irene Miracle (Midnight Express). She has shared the screen with the late Oscar nominee Pete Postlethwaite (The Usual Suspects), John Hannah (The Mummy, Sliding Doors, Spartacus), and Asia Argento (Go-Go-Tales, Marie Antoinette, New Rose Hotel), among others.
A remarkably versatile artist, Coralina excels across multiple creative fields: singer-songwriter, produced screenwriter, and former columnist for the online newspaper La Voce di New York. Her bilingual column, Coralina Of The Miracles, remains widely followed and enthusiastically read.
"Everything and everyone has a sound, and every sound has an image. My memories, my voice, the voices of others, eyes, hands, situations, objects, cities, lips, streets, rain, moon, smiles, toys, pebbles. Everything. Everyone and everything are notes. Sounds. I feel them. I hear them. I am those sounds. My painting, all my artistic expressions, are translations of those sounds."
Her passion for music has inspired not only her visual art but also her compositions for film and her album Limbo Balloon, featuring eclectic pieces she calls "Arias," influenced by Rock & Roll, New Wave, and Opera. She has performed her music throughout the USA and Canada.
Exploring her creativity further, Coralina has flourished as a painter. Her solo exhibitions have been highly praised within Manhattan's art scene, and her artwork, signed simply as "Coralina," has been displayed in galleries across the USA and Europe. Her clientele includes numerous distinguished international filmmakers and performers.
Her career has been featured in many publications. The book Coralina: Life is Art/Art is Life, edited by journalist Filippo Brunamonti of Huffington Post and La Repubblica, is part of the collection at the New York Public Library for The Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
Coralina shares "Story by" credit with award-winning director Mariano Baino on the stereoscopic film Hidden 3D, an English-language Canadian/Italian co-production produced in part by Oscar winner Don Carmody.
In September 2016, Coralina won the Award of Excellence for Actress: Leading at the Best Shorts Competition for her powerful and emotionally charged portrayal of Lady Macbeth in Lady M 5.1, a short film adaptation of Act 5 Scene 1 of Shakespeare's Macbeth, directed by Mariano Baino. She also composed the original soundtrack, designed costumes, and collaborated on production design.
Lady M 5.1 has been screened at prestigious venues including Mana Contemporary, The Anthology Film Archives in NYC, and had its European premiere on October 31, 2017, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome (Macro).
On June 16, 2019, A Moving Read, a Sci-Fi/Fantasy short film starring Coralina, filmed in Naples, Italy, and directed by Mariano Baino, premiered at the Fantafestival in Rome. Coralina also composed its music. Together, Baino and Coralina created a promotional short film announcing the festival.
During the event, both were honored individually with Fantafestival's Silver Bat Career Achievement Award.
Coralina co-owns the production company Astrid's Saints, LLC with director Mariano Baino. The pair have collaborated on multiple projects, including the feature film Astrid's Saints, which she co-wrote and co-produced.
On September 10, 2024, Astrid's Saints had its world premiere at L'Ètrange Festival in Paris, France.
Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni lives with her two rescue dogs, Dreamer and Zungolito.
