Carmen Russo

Reality television personality, singer, actress, dancer

Carmela Carolina Fernanda "Carmen" Russo (born 3 October 1959) is an Italian showgirl, television personality, actress, dancer, model, dance teacher and occasional singer. Russo started her career as a model in the mid 1970s participating in several beauty contests in Italy. She first came to the public's attention for her roles in the commedia erotica all'italiana (sex comedy) genre, such as Mia moglie torna a scuola, Giovani, belle probabilmente ricche, and Paulo Roberto Cotechiño centravanti di sfondamento. She subsequently established herself as a television star in the 1980s with the variety shows Drive In, Risatissima, and Grand Hotel. In 2003 and 2006, she also participated in the Italian and Spanish versions of the reality show Celebrity Survivor. She won in the Spanish version Supervivientes. In 2017, she also competed in Grande Fratello VIP 2, the Italian version of Celebrity Big Brother. During her career, she released also three unsuccessful studio albums, Stars on Donna, Le canzoni di "Drive in ", and italic=y, and she was also chosen many times as a model for Playmen magazine during the 1980s.

Russo was born in Genoa, on 3 October 1959. Her father, Giovanni Russo, was a Sicilian policeman, and her mother, Emilian Giuseppina Gherardini, worked as a cashier at the cinema "Olimpia". After her parents' move to Pavullo nel Frignano, a town in the province of Modena, Emilia Romagna and in 1969 her family return in Genoa, where she joined a dance academy. In 1973, she finished middle school and her parents entered her at the Istituto Tecnico per il Turismo, in Genoa, so that she does not give dance her full attention. With sacrifices she followed the dance lesson of Wanda Nardi, the most important dance school of the time in Genoa and she also began working as a model mannequin, and for the department store Coin, she did a poster advertisement.

In 1974, at the age of 13, Russo won her first important beauty contest, "Miss Liguria". The previous year, Russo also won the title of "Miss Emilia" held in Pavullo nel Frignano, but it was a qualification that had no value for the national contest. By winning the victory of "Miss Liguria", Russo had the opportunity to participate in the election of "Miss Italia", but she was disqualified because she was too young. Although Russo began her career as an actress, she continued to work as a showgirl in nightclubs, and in 1978, Russo hosted, with Ettore Andenna, the TV show La bustarella, which aired on Antenna 3 Lombardia. In the same year, she participated in Portobello with Enzo Tortora aired in Raiuno. Later, Russo appeared in many others films and debuted in the theater supporting Walter Chiari in Hai mai provato con l'acqua calda?. and La settimana bianca. During the making of La settimana bianca in the summer of 1980, she met Gianfranco D'Angelo, who helped Russo to enter the world of television. In this year, Russo also shot Le porno killers, her first role as a protagonist. In the film, Russo played a bisexual killer. In the movie, she was credited as Carmen Bizet. The show had an unexpected success, with 41% of share every time.