Salvatore Cantalupo

Salvatore Cantalupo is an Italian actor who has recently risen to prominence following his appearance in Matteo Garrone's dark depiction of the contemporary Italian Mafia, "Gomorrah." A native of Naples, Cantalupo mostly plied his trade in the theater until the early 2000s, showing promise but never becoming a featured actor, let alone emerging as a bona fide star among his peers. He made his film debut in 1998, taking a principal role in writer/director Mario Martone's drama "Rehearsals for War," about a group actors rehearsing an Aeschylus play which is to be performed in Sarajevo. The film also featured in a smaller, supporting role Toni Servillo, the prominent Italian actor with whom Cantalupo has since reteamed a number of times, on stage (in productions of "Le False Confidenze" and "Il Lavoro Rende Liberi" in 2005 and 2006, respectively), on televsion (in up-and-coming director Paolo Sorrentino's 2005 comic TV movie, "Sabato, Domenica e Lunedì"), and on celluloid. The latter collaboration was "Gomorrah," in which Cantalupo brilliantly portrayed a tailor forced to give up his successful business whem he crosses the Camorra, the local mob. Since this breakout performance, Cantalupo has been busy, taking supporting roles in Marco Risi's crime biopic "Fortapàsc" and Francesca Comencini's emotional drama "Lo Spazio Bianco," and playing the lead role of priest Don Mario in Alice Rohrwacher's 2011 drama, "Corpo Celeste."