Michele Morrone

Michele Morrone (Italian pronunciation: [miˈkɛːle morˈroːne]); (born October 3, 1990) is an Italian actor, model, singer, and fashion designer appearing in both Italian and Polish films. He gained international recognition after the performance of Massimo Torricelli in the 2020 erotic and romantic drama 365 Days. The film has been breaking Netflix records since its release on June 7, 2020[1].

Michele Morrone
Michele Morrone in an interview in 2019
Born	(1990-10-03) 3 October 1990 Bitonto, Italy
Occupation	Actor, singer, model, fashion designer
Years active	2011–present
Height	1.89 m (6 ft 2 ^1⁄2 in)
Spouse(s)	Rouba Saadeh ​ ( m. 2014; div. 2018)
Children	2

Early life

Morrone was born on October 3, 1990, in Bitonto, Italy.[2] Morrone has three older sisters, and is the only boy in his family. His father worked as a construction worker and died in 2002[3] when Morrone was only 12 years old.[4] His mother, Angela, a seamstress, and his father, Natale (born December 1, 1947)[5] are both from Bitonto but moved to Melegnano when their children were small in order to find better employment opportunities.[6] Morrone decided to become an actor after watching a Harry Potter film at age 11.[4] He began acting by participating in an after school program that was offered at his middle school.[7] Morrone repeated his first year of High School after being left back for bad behavior.[8] He then studied professional acting in a theater in the city of Pavia, at the Teatro Fraschini di Pavia.[9]

Career

Acting

His acting career began in 2011 by playing the role of Riccardo in 'Second Chance',[9] a three-episode web series directed by Piergiorgio Seidita,[10] which was cancelled after just one season. He also appeared in a music video by the Italian girl band, Makay in 2012. After gaining more experience in the field, he started playing lead roles in short films. He acted in 'Il Tempo di una Sigaretta' and 'E la Vita Continua'.[9] He was featured in a drama show titled 'Che Dio ci Aiuti'. Some of his projects include several Italian tv series including Come un Delfino (2011), Provaci Ancora (2015), Squadra Antimafia (2015), Sirene (2016), Renata Fonte (2017), Il Processo (The Trial on Netflix) (2018), and Medici (2018) [9]. In 2016 he took part in the eleventh season of the Italian version of 'Dancing with the Stars' (Ballando con le Stelle), where he placed second. In 2019, Morrone got a chance to play the lead role of Luigi in 'Bar Giuseppe'.

In 2020 Morrone became internationally known after performing the lead role of Massimo Torricelli, a mafia crime boss, in 365 Days. The film was released theatrically in Poland on February 7, 2020 and was subsequently made available on Netflix on June 7, 2020. He signed a three year contract with the production company, and will be filming two more films to complete the trilogy.

Music

Morrone is a professional guitarist and singer. He learned how to play the guitar at the age of 25 by watching YouTube videos[4]. He released an album titled Dark Room which has several songs featured in the official 365 dni soundtrack including one of his most famous songs, "Feel It", that has scenes with actress, Anna Maria Sieklucka (Laura Biel), from the film in its music video.[11] The album was released on the 14th of February 2020 and contains the following 10 songs produced by label company, AGORA S.A.: "Hard For Me", "Watch Me Burn", "Do it Like That", "Rain in The Heart".,[11] "Feel it", "Dark Room", "Dad", "No one cares", "Next" and "Drink Me".[12]

Morrone joined YouTube on January 16, 2020. He has gained over 1 million subscribers and 104 million overall views on his channel (as of August 8, 2020). The most viewed video on his channel is the music video of "Feel It" that has gained 23 million views.

Clothing brand

On August 2, 2020 Morrone launched a beachwear clothing brand, 'AurumRoma', which was created for women and is made in Italy.[13] Morrone confirmed the creation of his clothing company via an Instagram live story on August 8, 2020. Shortly after the announcement, the website of the clothing brand crashed due to heavy traffic. Morrone makes his own designs in collaboration with fashion designer Chiara Pollano. The company is owned by Morrone, and run by Spazio Arcó company.

Morrone is set to launch his own perfume, Feel It, which will be out in stores on October 3, 2020.

Personal life

Morrone married Rouba Saadeh, a Lebanese stylist, in 2014. Morrone met his wife in 2011 while visiting Lebanon, and kept her a secret from the world until 2016 to maintain privacy.[3] The couple had a civil marriage in Italy, and Lebanon with intimate ceremonies of 20 guests.[3] Morrone became a father at age 23, and has two sons, Marcus (born in 2014) and Brando (born in 2018). Morrone and Saadeh divorced in 2018 after being together for almost 8 years. In 2019 an Italian magazine, Chi (magazine), had published photos of Morrone with an Italian ballet dancer, Elena D'Amario, and claimed he was cheating on Sadeeh.[14] After the photos were published, Morrone defended himself on an Instagram post by revealing that he and his wife had divorced.[15]

Morrone went through a rough patch following his divorce. He wrote, "A year and a half ago I was about to leave everything, I didn't want to act anymore. I was in a severe state of depression after divorcing my ex wife. I found work as a gardener in a remote village of 1000 inhabitants because I had no more money in my pocket." He added, "But life is strange. When you're down destiny puts the right train in front of you and if you're strong you can take it. Always believe in yourself... ALWAYS."[16]

In a 2019 interview, Morrone stated that he does not believe in God, or in the existence of a heaven or hell.[17]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	Who's the Beast	Peter	Short film
2018	L'ultimo giorno del toro	N/A
2019	Bar Giuseppe	Luigi
2020	365 Days	Massimo Torricelli
2020	Duetto	Marcello Bianchini	In post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	Provaci ancora prof!	Bruno Sacchi	Episode: "Passioni sprecate"
2017	Sirene	Ares aka Gegè	TV series
2018	Renata Fonte	Marcello My	Television film
2019	Medici	Ship Captain	2 episodes
2019	The Trial	Claudio Cavalleri	8 episodes

References

1. Bean, Travis. "'365 Days' Is Breaking Netflix Records Like No Other Movie In 2020". Forbes.
2. https://www.mediasetplay.mediaset.it/video/verissimo/michele-morrone_F308458801020C19
3. "Michele Morrone dopo Ballando con le stelle si svela e presenta la moglie segreta". Tvzap. May 3, 2016.
4. Maffioletti, Chiara (June 8, 2020). "Michele Morrone, il sex addicted di «365 giorni» ora è una star musicale". Corriere della Sera.
5. https://www.mediasetplay.mediaset.it/video/verissimo/michele-morrone_F308458801020C19
6. srl, Comma3. "Bitonto a Ballando con le stelle di Rai Uno con Michele Morrone". Bitonto a Ballando con le stelle di Rai Uno con Michele Morrone.
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXKypnH7-y8
8. https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=764593404294973
9. "TAKE OFF Artist Management". www.takeoffartistmanagement.com.
10. Marseglia, Daniele (February 22, 2013). "Telefilm Central intervista Piergiorgio Seidita, regista della nuova web serie Second Chance".
11. "Video". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
12. "dark room album songs - Google Search". www.google.com.
13. https://www.facebook.com/aurumroma/
14. "Elena d'Amario e Michele Morrone fidanzati? Baci bollenti e foto su Chi | Ultime Notizie Flash". www.ultimenotizieflash.com.
15. "Michele Morrone sui social parla di Elena d'Amario e della sua ex moglie: "Non l'ho tradita" | Ultime Notizie Flash". www.ultimenotizieflash.com.
16. "'365 Dni': Meet Michele Morrone, the kinky 'daddy' from Netflix's new erotic drama that's driving fans crazy". meaww.com.
17. https://www.mediasetplay.mediaset.it/video/verissimo/michele-morrone_F308458801020C19

External links

• Michele Morrone on IMDb