Lello Arena (Raffaello Arena) is an Italian actor, director, writer, screenwriter, born on 1 November 1953 in Naples (Italy).
In 1983 he received the award for best supporting actor at the David di Donatello for the film Sorry for the delay . Lello Arena is now 70 years old and has the zodiac sign Scorpio.

• • Great and historic cabaret artist, theatrical and sporadically cinematographic actor who brought new lifeblood to the new Neapolitan comedy, becoming one of its primary exponents together with Massimo Troisi and Enzo De Caro , with whom he founded the theater group La Smorfia, in the second half of the Seventies.
    
    Cabaret, the Smorfia years and the new Neapolitan comedy
    Born in Naples on 1 November 1953, Lello Arena was attracted to the world of entertainment from a young age. In fact, it was in 1977 that he founded, with his two friends, Massimo Troisi and Enzo De Caro , the comedy group I Saraceni which then gradually matured into the La Smorfia trio, leading him to act at the Sancarluccio Theater and immediately receiving a large public success.
    Eager to break through beyond regional borders, they are invited to work at the Roman cabaret La Chanson and from there they will move throughout Italy, through various tours, bringing to the scene a comedy made up of surreal sketches, linked both to the tradition of the old Neapolitan comedy, both farce, but imbuing everything with a fairly sharp social and political satire. And this is how they win over the public.
    
    Radio and TV
    Obviously, such success translates into a consequent invitation to work for the radio (they participate in the show “Cordiamente Insieme”) and television which definitively consecrates them with programs such as “Non Stop” (1977), “La sberla” ( 1978) and “Luna Park”.
    
    Films with Troisi and Donatello’s David
    When Massimo Troisi decides to try his hand at cinema, he will want to bring his friend Lello with him. His debut film is Ricomincio da tre (1981) and we are faced with one of Troisi ‘s most successful films . Arena plays the role of the protagonist’s intrusive and annoying friend. The pairing works and the cinematographic experiment is repeated with Sorry for the delay (1983) which, once again, finds favor with the public and which awards Arena with a David di Donatello as best supporting actor for the role of Tonino, again best friend of the character played by Troisi , who just can’t find peace after being left by his girlfriend and becomes almost maniacally obsessed with her.
    
    Bertoldo, Bertoldino and Cacasenno
    At this point, other Italian directors also noticed him. First of all, Mario Monicelli who includes him together with Ugo Tognazzi , Annabella Schiavone , Maurizio Nichetti andAlberto Sordi in Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno (1984), entrusting him with the role of the Lombard King Alboin. Arena’s acting is absolutely impeccable and almost makes you forget that a sovereign of Slavic origin is debating in a Neapolitan language, all deliberately done by the great director to create that extra bizarre effect that represents added value to the film.
    
    His directorial debut
    In 1988, Arena decided to move on to directing, hoping to follow in the same footsteps as Troisi (and perhaps meet the same luck), so he directed Chiari di luna , the story of a boy who, accompanied by an old nun aunt , leaves his hometown to move to Naples in search of work. Moonlight is not as memorable as Ricomincio da tre and Lello Arena doesn’t have the makings of a director like Troisi had . The film, therefore, doesn’t take off as it should and the actor decides not to repeat the experience behind the camera.
    
    Retirement and return to the stage
    Added to this, unfortunately, was the premature death (from a heart attack) of his friend. Deliberately, Arena will move away from the big and small screen, preferring a period of inactivity. Only in 1995, pushed again by Monicelli , did he return to acting alongside Philippe Noiret (who had been, among other things, one of the last actors to share a film set with Troisi in The Postman ) in Fare Paradiso which, however, did not have great success with audiences and critics.
    
    Television career
    Throughout the rest of the Nineties, Arena’s career is mainly made up of television appearances, hosts and appearances in TV series, if not in sitcoms in which he is the co-star ( Qui due sopra il varano with Enzo Iacchetti ). In 1997, he was chosen to present the fifth edition of “Scherzi a parte” with Massimo Lopez and Elenoire Casalegno , which was quite successful in terms of ratings.
    
    The Taviani films
    Only at the end of the Nineties, and more precisely in 1998, will he return once again to the big screen, perhaps pushed by his father-in-law Vittorio Taviani who, together with his brother Paolo , will direct him in the Pirandellian Tu ridi (1998), which will be followed the TV film Luisa Sanfelice (2004), also by Taviani (where he will play a henchman of Queen Maria Carolina) and Meraviglioso Boccaccio (2014).
    
    The dubbing of Pulcinella
    It is worth mentioning the dubbing of a nice and pot-bellied Pulcinella in the animated film Totò Sapore and the magical story of pizza , complete with a singing moment (the song “Pulcinella Cacofonico”) in which Arena proves that he can once again be at the height of the challenges required of him professionally.
    
    The TV series Baciati dall’amore
    A Rai TV series, Baciati dall’amore , will follow, which is quite successful, in which the actor will duet as the husband of a very grumpy and prickly Marisa Laurito . It seems that the comic skits and exchanges between the two were the funniest part of the miniseries.
    
    A new return in 2014
    In 2014, another film at the cinema with The Most Beautiful School in the World directed by Luca Miniero , where he will share the set with Christian De Sica , Rocco Papaleo and Angela Finocchiaro .
    
    Work in publishing
    Few are aware of it but, in 1993, Lello Arena was the author of the book “The secrets of the sacred papyrus of the supreme Urz” and also the screenwriter of comics such as “Lupo Alberto” and “Topolino”, as well as theater author. In fact, the text “Un bel giorno a Santastella …” written with Francesco Artibani is written by him .
    
    Awards and private life
    In 2009, he received the Massimo Troisi Lifetime Achievement Award with great emotion. As for his love life, since 2006, he has been married to Francesca Taviani, daughter of Vittorio Taviani . The two have a son, Leonardo, born in 2003, after years of cohabitation.