We were lucky to catch up with Francesco Dalli Cani recently and have shared our conversation below.

Francesco, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

If I could go back in time I would start my career exactly when I did the first time. Since middle school I always tried to get into the theater club, but funnily enough something always happened last minute and the theater club always got cancelled. However, things changed during my fourth year of High School. My English teacher was preparing an adaptation of “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare. It was 2016. The Anniversary of W. Shakespeare’s death. She was working with a friend of her’s named Giocondo, who was a director from a local theatrical company. He had come to our school specifically to direct this play. Luckily for me, they were having trouble casting the role of Prospero. A week before the debut they still hadn’t found someone that could play the part. Furthermore, because time was running out, no one wanted to take on such a massive role with so many lines to learn. That’s when my english teacher, Marina, came to me and told me that I was going to play Prospero. She said that I didn’t really have a choice in the matter because I was the only one that could do that (having studied Shakespearian english in Middle school). Somehow I managed to learn all of my lines and do a good job. Both my teacher and director were surprised by my performance. After I graduated high school Marina and Giocondo offered me to become a member of their theatrical company; and the rest is history.
I thought many times in the past that I would have wanted to start my acting career sooner. I believed that if I started when I was younger, I could be a better actor in the present. I think many artists go through that thought process. Recently I came to realize that every person is going through life at their own private pace. Sometimes the best things will happen only when the time is right. In my case, my acting career was supposed to start when I was nearing high school graduation and I wouldn’t change a single thing about it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m an Italian actor and model based in Los Angeles, known for my classical training, transformative performances, and international background. I was born in Arzignano and raised in Vicenza, Italy. I developed an early fascination with storytelling, film, and language, growing up bilingual in Italian and English and discovering performance as a natural extension of communication.

I trained in theatre during my years in Classical Studies, where intensive work in Latin, Greek, philosophy, and literature shaped my approach to character and text, while deepening my appreciation for Shakespeare and classical drama.

Alongside my academic path, I worked extensively as a live children’s entertainer, performing for audiences of over one hundred children at a time, an experience that sharpened my improvisation, presence, and storytelling instincts.

While earning my law degree from the University of Padova, I continued acting in theatre under the mentorship of my director Giocondo and performing competitively in Caribbean dance, all while balancing professional work in translation, legal consulting, and business.

In 2023, I relocated to Los Angeles to pursue acting full time, graduating from the New York Film Academy in 2025.
Since relocating, I built a growing body of on-camera work, including a proof-of-concept short film in which I portrays both protagonist and antagonist, undergoing a significant physical transformation and accent shift to fully separate the characters. My commitment to transformation and craft has also led me (with great surprise) to modeling work and representation in both theatrical and commercial markets.

Currently based in Los Angeles, I continue to develop original work, prepare a festival run for my latest short film, and expand my acting and modeling portfolio.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

To me is the creative process. The final product is always fascinating, but I always thought that what I learn “behind the scenes” is always more rewarding.
Regardless of the medium. Theater or film. In order to get to the final product it is always a long process, and I always felt like I never end a project being the same person I was when I started.
I’m the kind of artist who likes to pick up new skills as I’m working on a new project. For example, in order to participate in some fashion shows I had to learn how to do a runway. Then, after that, I had to learn various poses and methods to best showcase the clothes and accessories that I was handed by the designers.
The most exciting thing of a new project is that you never know what you might pick up along the way. Sometimes is not even necessarily a skill. Sometimes it might just be something more introspective, a new POV on a topic,…

Have you ever had to pivot?

In 2024 I applied to USC for an LLM (a master in laws). I have an Italian law degree, so in order to act as a lawyer in the State of California, I would have had to go through the LLM program. My original plan was to become an entertainment lawyer and slowly work with that towards my artistic/acting goals.
Life sometimes doesn’t go as planned, and even though at first it seemed as if I was accepted into the program, I received a hard rejection. At first I didn’t know what to do. However, that hard rejection gave me no other option but to work towards my actual goal: acting. Two weeks later after that me and my team came up with the idea of a short in which I played two characters at the same time. That experience, including the 6 months of intense workouts, keto diet and acting preparation have been life changing for me.
Being rejected by USC proved to me that sometimes life doesn’t go as planned. Sometimes things just happen and that’s for the better.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.francescodallicaniacting.com/
• Instagram: @francesco.dalli.cani
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Francesco_Dalli_Cani

Image Credits

@lakengram