- Born
- Birth nameFragiskos Vitali
- Height6′ 3″ (1.91 m)
- After studying journalism in his native country of Greece, Francesco began a career as a journalist, TV host, actor, director, and producer. He wrote a best seller at age 19, a collection of intimate interviews with 35 of Greece's most distinguished celebrities. He also created the character Madame Estet, a television drag queen with a sharp tongue and a biting wit. He studied acting in New York City, in hopes of developing career in theatre and film in LosAngeles.
He has studied at the Lee Strasburg Institute, Herbert Berghof Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, Gene Frankel Actor's Studio, the Second City, and the Aster School of Music. He has also studied voice with Emmy award winner Victoria Gibson, as well as Phantom of the Opera conductor Stan Tucker.
Mr. Vitali's most notable international acting credits include the principal roles in A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller, the Triumph of Love by Marivaux, You Can't Take it With You by Hart and Kauffman, Ring Around the Moon by Anouilh, Antigone by Sophocles, the Valliant by Hall & Middleson, Neil Simon's Sweet Charity with music and score by Coleman & Fields, as well as the role of Devlin in last season's Tamarind production of Ashes To Ashes by Harold Pinter, directed by Di Trevis, who has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre and Covet Garden Theatre.
In 2004 he was the lead actor in a production of "Hamlet" with billboards all over the Hollywood. The show got George Clooney's attention which gave Francesco the opportunity to make his American TV guest debut in the HBO TV series "Unscripted" directed by Clooney and produced by Steven Soderbergh. Francesco has since taken a sabbatical from the theater to fully concentrate his talents in film and new media Projects. He is the executive producer and the master mind of the 48 Projects. The Ultimate International Online film and Music competitions.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Trudy Handelman - Francesco Vitali is a Greek-American film producer, director, writer and actor based in Los Angeles. He is best known for co-founding and managing 48FILM Project, an international short film festival. Vitali was born in Athens and grew up in Piraeus. His father's family came from Italy. He studied journalism and became an apprentice journalist in the newspaper Ethnos.
Having moved to Los Angeles, Vitali renovated a historic Hollywood theater called Tamarind Theater and brought the English director Di Trevis to direct plays by Pinter and Brecht, in which he played leading roles. While playing Hamlet in the Tamarind, he met George Clooney, who cast him in the same role in episodes 1.3 and 1.4 of Unscripted that he directed himself. Back in Greece, Vitali started a film festival together with Chris Siametis in 2008. To be able to found an international festival, they moved to Cyprus, set up an online company and made an ecological online film festival called 48 Go Green. Within 20 days, they had 330 entries from all over the world. Deciding to increase the scope of the festival, they both moved to Los Angeles.
48FILM Project Vitali as executive producer and Siametis as co-executive producer created an online festival for short films and called it 48 Film Project. In the competition, professional and amateur filmmakers worldwide are given 48 hours to write, film, edit, produce and upload a short 4-7 minute movie.
In 2009, Vitali and Siametis launched 48 Music Project as a pilot project where musicians had to create an original song within 48 hours. The project was endorsed by Sony Music, and singer and composer Dimitra Galani was president of the jury.
More than 75,000 filmmakers from 130 countries actively participated in the 48 Film Project festival by 2016. For the last years, the finalists' films have been screened at the Directors Guild of America.[8]- IMDb Mini Biography By: Steven Madison
- SpouseChrisa(June 14, 1996 - August 20, 1997) (divorced)
- Francesco is a very closed friend with Ivana Trump and HRH Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark.
- He is a dog lover. He has 2 old English sheepdogs Luno and Lola. He always travel with them all over the world. One of his favorite dogs used to be a husky name Dolce but it pass away from a rear disease.
- He and Ivana Trump created a clothes line for Summer 2008 named Ivana & Franko Signature. The fashion show in Mykonos island was very successfully and the best moment it was when Francesco showed up with Miss Greece Doukisa Nomikou on his side.
- Executive producer and co founder of the International Short film competition 48FILM Festival.
- Francesco Vitali is the co-creator and the executive producer of the original 48FILM Project, 48 GO GREEN, 48MUSIC.
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