Maria De Filippi

Maria De Filippi (born 5 December 1961) is an Italian television host. She is one of the most popular Italian presenters in Italian television.

Biography and career

De Filippi was born in Milan, Lombardy, but grew up in Pavia where her family moved when she was ten years old. She is married to talk show host Maurizio Costanzo with whom she has an adopted son.

She has hosted numerous talk shows (mostly trashic) broadcast by Mediaset's Canale 5 such as Uomini and donne and C'e posta per te. From 1993 until the present day (2012), she has hosted on Canale 5 the talent show Amici (before was a simply talk show) which changed its name in 2002 to Amici di Maria De Filippi. Similar to the American series Fame, it features a school with two groups of aspiring young singers and dancers who compete against the other, performing live before an audience, and a panel of judges and instructors. Albanian-born dancer Kledi Kadiu was a regular performer on the programme.

In 2001 she hosted Telegatto with Gerry Scotti. Since 2009, she has been one of Italia's Got Talent's judges and producers.

Gerry Scotti

Gerry Scotti (born August 7, 1956) is an Italian television presenter,actor and former member of the Italian Parliament.

Scotti was born Virginio Scotti on August 7, 1956 in Miradolo Terme, Pavia. After giving up studying law, Scotti began his broadcasting career as a disc jockey at Radio Milano International. In 1982, he moved to Radio DeeJay and a year later became the host of DeeJay Television, the first Italian program for music videos, broadcast by Italia 1. Scotti also hosted other music programs such as Festivalbar.

Scotti was a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Socialist Party from 1987 to 1992.

Since the 1990s, Scotti has been a television presenter, almost exclusively for Mediaset Canale 5. He is known as a host of quiz shows, having moderated Chi vuol essere milionario?, the Italian edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Passaparola and The Money Drop. He also directed entertainment programs such as La sai l'ultima?, La Corrida, Paperissima, and The Winner Is. He was the co-host of the satirical show Striscia la Notizia, and acted in several films and situation comedies.

Italia's Got Talent

Italia's Got Talent is the Italian version of the international Got Talent series. The pilot episode was aired on 12 December 2009 on Canale 5. In that episode, Carmen Masola's talent was discovered. The first episode was seen by 5.3 million people.
After this episode, Mediaset decided to renew this show with a full-length season. The first season started on 12 April 2010 with a high ratings and continued broadcasting. Maria De Filippi, Gerry Scotti and Rudy Zerbi are the three judges.

The sixth series (2015) will face many changes. It has been aired by pay-TV Sky Uno, the entertainment-purposed channel of Sky Italy, owned by News Corporation. The host is the Spanish-born Italian actress and model Vanessa Incontrada. No judges from the previous series have been confirmed: the new panel face the arrival of actor Claudio Bisio, actress and comedian Luciana Littizzetto, singer Nina Zilli and YouTube star Frank Matano.
Talents are competing for €100,000. The final has been simulcast by Sky Uno and Cielo.

Belén Rodríguez

María Belén Rodríguez Cozzani (maˈɾi.a βeˈlen roðˈɾiɣes koˈsani) (born 20 September 1984) is an Argentine television personality, actress and model. She is known by the name of Belén Rodríguez or as Belén and she lives and works in Italy, where she has presented many variety shows.

In 2009 and 2010, she has appeared in television commercials alongside actor Christian De Sica advertising a popular mobile phone network operating company. She made her acting debut as the female protagonist in the Italian film Natale in Sudafrica in December 2010. In 2011, she was a co-presenter of the annual televised Italian singing contest, the Sanremo Music Festival. The following year, she substituted as co-presenter for the first two nights of the festival.

Early life

Belén was born in Buenos Aires,Argentina, to Gustavo Rodríguez and Veronica Cozzani de Rodríguez. Her mother is of Italian origin Veronica Cozzani, the daughter of immigrants from La Spezia, Liguria. Belen is the sister of Jeremias and Cecilia, other sons of Gustavo and Veronica.