Max Leonida - Biography

Son of television writer and journalist Ranuccio Bastoni he starts early to write and play in theatre. At the age of 21, when he was a student of Literature at the Catholic University of Milan, he goes to the official audition to be enrolled at the Accademia de' Filodrammatici (one of the main three acting schools in Italy). He succeed to be included in the group of ten (among 500 candidates) and starts to learn acting and reciting. At the age of 23 he goes on the the stage with his first theatrical play (an adaptment from Woody Allen and Luigi Pirandello stories). In 1995 (when he was 25) to celebrate the 50 years of the end of Auschwitz's massacre he writes and plays the role of Father Kolbe in theater, obtaining a big attention by all the media (the show is recorded and still played by cable and satellite televisions). In 1996 he creates, with his wife Paola, the school Accademia dello Spettacolo and in 1999 he gives birth to the alternative theatrical space called "Teatro Estremo". In 2003 he opens Astarox, his own audiovisual production Company, creating videoclips and tv spots for many big international customers. In 2008 he writes and directs "Mandala - il simbolo", his first feature movie.