Checco Zalone
Luca Pasquale Medici, known as Checco Zalone, is an Italian comedian, actor, showman, singer, musician, cabaret performer, screenwriter, director and film producer. He co-wrote and starred in the four highest-grossing Italian films in Italy headed by ''Quo Vado?''
Biography and career
Zalone was born in Bari. The pseudonym Checco Zalone recalls the local expression Che cozzalone! meaning "What a boor!" He graduated from the scientific high school Sante Simone in Conversano; he later enrolled at the University of Bari, where he graduated in law. In the meantime, he competed as a deputy police inspector and INAIL in Rimini, but was rejected.After being a regular in many editions of the Canale 5 variety show , he became famous in 2006 thanks to the song "", celebrating the Italian team just before the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In 2009, he co-wrote and starred in Cado dalle nubi, co-written by Gennaro Nunziante, who also directed.
In 2011, he again co-wrote and starred in What a Beautiful Day, also co-written and directed by Nunziante. It opened with a record Italian opening weekend of $9.4 million and became the highest-grossing Italian film of all-time in Italy, grossing €43.4 million, surpassing Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful. Life Is Beautiful retained the worldwide record for an Italian film with $70 million worldwide.
In 2013, he and Nunziante followed it up with Sole a catinelle, which surpassed it with an opening record of €19.2 million and a total gross of €51.9 million.
In January 2016, his and Nunziante's next film Quo Vado? set another opening weekend record grossing over €22m over the three-day holiday weekend and went on to become the highest grossing Italian film of all time with €65.3 million, second only to Avatar in Italy with €65.7 million. In the same year, Zalone was the Italian spokesperson for a fundraising campaign for spinal muscular atrophy research. His and Nunziate's films are currently the second, third, fifth and sixth highest-grossing films in Italy.
On 30 April 2021, Zalone released the video of his song "La vacinada", starring English actress Helen Mirren. In the song, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the corona virus, and therefore the best option is an older partner, as the elderly were vaccinated first.
In 2022, he performed a medley at the Sanremo Music Festival.
On 17 December 2025, he released a promotional short titled "Prostata enflamada" to promote the launch of the film Buen Camino.
In 2025, the challenge to the Italian cinema box office with Avatar continues, and while Checco Zalone comes out at the cinema with the new film Buen Camino, James Cameron comes out with Avatar: Fire and Ash. A challenge to the highest grossing ever in Italian cinema, which Zalone jokes about with humorous jokes with the audience. Making it seem like James Cameron is wondering "who the f... is this Zalone!"
The film Buen Camino contains memorable comic scenes such as when he travels the Camino de Santiago in a Ferrari Portofino, telling a walker that he was doing "the cammino of Maranello, more comfortable and more beautiful!".
Futhermore, Checco Zalone responded to critics, particularly those who criticized his previous film, Tolo Tolo, who accused him of being too overtly politically correct. This time, Checco Zalone replied: "Politically correct? Better to be intelligently incorrect."
On the film's first opening day, Christmas Day, it grossed €5.6 million at the box office and reaching almost €14 million on the second day, proving to be well received by the public.