What would Italian cinema be without the iconic actresses of the Dolce Vita Era? Sophia Loren! Monica Vitti! Claudia Cardinale! Their glamor graced international screens during the 1960s, not only creating a whole new definition for the word glamor but paving roads and breaking glass ceilings for generations of female actresses to come. In recent years, a gifted cohort of twenty- and thirty-somethings has emerged on Italy’s cinematic stage, their talent and style rivaling that of their silver-haired predecessors on the silver screen. Here, four young Italian actresses to follow as they shoot to stardom:

Matilda De Angelis

First up, Bologna-born, twenty-something Matilda De Angelis who first made waves on the international stage playing Elena Alves in the HBO series The Undoing, alongside greats like Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman, and Donald Sutherland. Although her violent death happens within the first episode (no more spoilers, we promise!), her charisma and cat-like blue eyes stuck with fans long into the final frames. 

We’ve got some bad news for anyone in acting school: De Angelis never trained as an actress and was cast in her first movie role precisely because the director wanted a nonprofessional. It seems acting came naturally to her, as she was nominated for two David di Donatello Awards–the Italian equivalent of the Oscars–for her role in that film, Veloce come il vento. From there, her acting career was launched, and she picked up roles in L’Isola delle Rose, the series Leonardo, and the adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel, Across the River and Into the Trees. Recently, as the eponymous lead of Netflix series The Law According to Lidia Poët, she portrayed Italy’s first female lawyer.

We love her Instagram presence too; she’s all very real, and reminds us that, yes, she’s a star, but she’s still a woman in her twenties too. 

Benedetta Porcaroli 

Hailing from our capital city, Benedetta Porcaroli made her break at age twenty in the Italian Netflix series, Baby, following a minor cinematic role in Perfetti sconosciuti. In the former, we find her as Chiara Altieri, a private-schooled teen who gets caught up in an underage prostitution ring. The series is loosely based on the 2014 “Baby Squillo” scandal in the wealthy district of Parioli, Rome, when high schoolers were selling their bodies in order to buy luxury products. It’s not an easy role to play–and the show was surrounded by controversy, with some claiming that it glorified undeerage prostitution–but Porcaroli does so with passion and sensitivity, and we see both her and her character blossom across the seasons.

Porcaroli has also acted in La scuola cattolica and in 18 regali as a disgruntled teenager, who, after a car accident, travels back in time and meets her dead mother, pregnant with her at the time (so meta!). Soon, she returns to Netflix as Concetta in Il Gattopardo, an upcoming series adapted from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa classic novel of the same name.

Miriam Leone

Winner of Miss Italy 2008, ​​Miriam Leone is a modern-day renaissance woman. Pageant queen, co-host and presenter of several Rai Uno shows, and now actress, Leone made her break into television in 2011 with the main role of Mara Fermi in the TV series Distretto di Polizia. Most recently, Leone starred as Eva Kant in the 2021 film Diabolik, based on the 1962 Italian comic series created by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani. Eva is lead Diabolik’s lover and accomplice, but she stands out as an independent and titular character in her own right. Leone describes Eva as strong, interesting, and determined, simultaneously sexy and authoritative as well as sweet in love. She attests this well-rounded character to the fact that she was created by two women, and Leone plays her with flair. She is currently playing Giulia Portalupi, a character from the best seller “The Lions of Sicily” (on Disney+).

Alessandra Mastronardi 

This bilingual beauty’s most famous role outside our borders is that of Milly, astronomy teacher and new bride, in the second cameo of Woody Allen’s comedy To Rome with Love. But the Naples-born, mid-thirties actress has a long roster of domestic and international productions under her belt: the American comedy drama Master of None, for which she won a Critics’ Choice Television Award in 2017; Netflix series Medici: Masters of Florence, in which she played Lucrezia Donati; 2007 Italian film Prova a volare; and film Non smettere di sognare as young dancer Stella. Her most recent venture was a beautiful homage to a great Italian woman (takes one to play one!) and famous ballet dancer Carla Fracci in Carla.