Daniele Luttazzi

Biography: Luttazzi was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna, province of Rimini. He began his comic career performing satirical monologues in theatre shows and writing comedy books. In 1988, his monologue won an award in a comedy contest held at Rome's Teatro Sistina. From 1989, he began working in TV variety shows: Fate il vostro gioco (1989, Rai 2), Banane (1989, Telemontecarlo), Magazine 3 (1993, 1994, Rai 3), Mai Dire Gol (1996, 1997, Italia 1). In 1998, he hosts his own late night show, Barracuda (Italia 1). Luttazzi did monologues about recent news, interviews with famous showbiz and political personalities, and skits for adult audiences. The same formula was then adopted for his next TV show, called Satyricon, aired by the public channel Rai 2 in 2001. In March 2001, Luttazzi interviewed journalist Marco Travaglio about "L'odore dei soldi" (The Scent of Money), a book on the mysterious origins of Silvio Berlusconi's wealth. The next year, shortly after Berlusconi's statement on the "criminal use of public television" made by Luttazzi (see Editto Bulgaro), Luttazzi's show was cancelled by RAI's management. Since then, Luttazzi has been often cited by the European press (i.e. The Economist, Le Monde, El País) as proof of Mr. Berlusconi's censorship of the opposition. After television, Luttazzi toured Italy doing theatre shows and wrote books. He returned on TV in 2007 with the new satirical program "Decameron: Politica, Sesso, Religione e Morte" (Decameron: Politics, Sex, Religion and Death) for the private channel La7. Eventually his show was suspended after a controversial joke on journalist Giuliano Ferrara (who was working for La7 too).[1][2][3] 2012: Luttazzi wins his legal battle against La7. La7 shall pay Luttazzi 1 million 2 hundred thousand euros.[4]