MariaCristina was born and reared in Trieste, Italy,not far from Venice. Trieste is a complex multi-ethnic town on the north eastern border of Italy. She began her career very young on the live stage and as an on-air presenter on many live shows for RAI. She was hired by Raimondo Vianello for his sitcom "Casa Vianello" the most successful sitcom ever produced in Italy,where she played Valeria,the tempting young woman living on the top floor.This nationally televised character on a hit television show gave her early success.In the cinema she worked with Italian Masters:Castellano and Pipolo,Pupi Avati,Dario Argento,Alessandro Benvenuti and she had starring roles in many television series,for both drama and comedy. Since she moved to LA she worked in many international projects between America and Europe, such as:"Jesus"for CBS,the feature film "Angels and Demons"with director Ron Howard, the miniseries "Barabbas",etc. In Europe she is part of the cast for the french drama series "Odysseus" In the US she recently appeared in "Law and Order" for NBC and in the comedy series "Backpackers" as recurring guest star for CW network. She is also the presenter/host for TeleItalia Network in Los Angeles where she hosts in two languages Italian and American-English. Show less «