Edoardo Purgatori
Edoardo Purgatori, also credited early as Ed Hendrik, is a German-Italian actor working in film, television and theatre.
Trained at the Oxford School of Drama, he has collaborated with acclaimed directors including Ferzan Özpetek, Paolo Virzì, Gabriele Mainetti and Michele Placido. He is currently touring Italy in the lead role of Brokeback Mountain and has received awards such as the Nastro d’Argento 2025, the Claudio Nobis Award 2025 and Best Actor at the Milan Shorts Film Festival 2024.
Biography
Edoardo Purgatori was born in Rome to Italian journalist and screenwriter Andrea Purgatori and German art historian and actress Nicola Schmitz. He grew up bilingual, attending the German School of Rome, where he became part of the school’s theatre company. At eighteen he began training with Actors Studio members from New York, and later studied in London, joining the Oxford School of Drama.He made his television debut in 2007 in Donna Detective, followed by further roles in Italian TV dramas. International visibility came in 2012 with a small role in Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love. In the same year he appeared in the RAI film Anita Garibaldi as the historical figure Nino Bixio. He gained wider recognition between 2013 and 2016 with the recurring role of Emiliano Lupi in the popular RAI series Un Medico in Famiglia.
In cinema, Purgatori has since worked with leading Italian directors, including Paolo Virzì, Ferzan Özpetek, Gabriele Mainetti, Michele Placido, Claudio Amendola, Giovanni Veronesi and Pilar Fogliati, Michela Giraud and Monica Guerritore. His television and streaming work includes Le fate ignoranti, Vincenzo Malinconico, and Una finestra vista lago.
On stage, Purgatori has played leading roles in a wide range of productions. After early appearances in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute, he developed a strong presence in contemporary English drama, starring in Mouthpiece, Girl in the Machine, Killology and The Pass. In Italy he has worked extensively under the direction of Ferzan Özpetek, notably in the stage version of Mine Vaganti, and has appeared in Giuseppe Patroni Griffi’s Metti, una sera a cena. His theatre work also includes Maratona di New York and a series of contemporary productions in Rome such as Il Professionista and Santa Maria della Pietà – Le Agitate. In 2025/26 he will take on the lead role of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, directed by Giancarlo Nicoletti, for a nationwide Italian tour.
Awards
· Milan Shorts Film Festival 2024 – Best Actor· Claudio Nobis Award 2025 – Best Actor Under 35
· Nastro d’Argento 2025 – Film of the Year