Riccardo Scamarcio (born 13 November 1979) is an Italian film actor. Scamarcio was born in Trani, Apulia. He went to train as an actor at the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema in Rome, where he now lives. His debut acting role was in a TV series in 2000, while his first ever lead role in a feature film was in Tre metri sopra il cielo (2004), directed by Luca Lucini. Through this he immediately became well known to the Italian speaking public, especially a young audience. His success brought him prominence as a sex symbol and boosted requests for his acting skills, leading to his role in Texas (2005), directed by Fausto Paravidino and soon to him joining the cast of Romanzo criminale, playing a monosyllabic, enigmatic thug character in a powerful portrait of a mafiosi community directed by Michele Placido. In 2006 he acted in The Black Arrow, a TV series broadcast by Canale 5, adapted from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, and took on four new film roles: Mio fratello è figlio unico (2007), directed by Daniele Luchetti, based on the novel Il Fasciocomunista by Antonio Pennacchi. Scamarcio won a David di Donatello nomination for Best Supporting Actor for this work.