Elisabetta Fantone

Early life and background

Born in Montreal, Quebec, she is the youngest of four children of Gino and Maria Fantone. She has three brothers, Pasquale, Roberto and Eliseo. Elisabetta is of Italian origins. Her parents are Italians who immigrated to Canada. Elisabetta spent four years of here childhood living in Italy in her parents region hometown of Molise and then moved back to Montreal. During her stay in Italy she attended San Giovanni Bosco elementary school in Isernia, Campobasso.

In her early school years, Elisabetta transferred from St-Gertrude Elementary School in Montreal to Jean-Nicolet elementary due to a lack of understanding and communicating in French. A year later, perfectly fluent in French, she was back at St-Gertrude Elementary. Teachers where astonished at the rapidity of her learning the language. She then attended Calixa-Lavallée a French High School where she was part of the theatre group and won for best actress for her leading role as "Lucretia" in "La Mandragore", the year's theater play. She then graduated in 1999. For the following year, Elisabetta took a year off from school and decided to dedicate her time to several part-time jobs. In 2000 she attended Dawson College to study Creative Arts. In 2001 she transferred to Lasalle College in downtown Montreal where she graduated in Interior Design. She then took several other evening classes such as jewelry design, furniture design and language classes such as Spanish and German at various institutions. She also took many acting workshops training with the best in Montreal, Quebec. She worked as an interior designer creating residential and commercial spaces until 2006 when she decided to dedicate herself to her biggest passion, acting.

Career

Elisabetta has worked as a model, actress, singer, painter and author.

Modeling

Elisabetta began modeling as a child, initially participating into beauty pageants, school fashion shows, charity events and local events. When she was 19, she was one of the contestants in the Miss Italia beauty pageant finishing 1st in the regional competition. She then appeared several times in campaigns for Historia, a Quebec-based fashion company. As a teenager she was also a hair model for brands such has Wella, Redken, Bed Head and L’Oreal.

In 2008 she was the celebrity spokesmodel for various campaigns such as Quebec's based company Yellow Shoes (for their Fall Campaign with advertisements in all their stores locations and radio).In 2009 she was the brand ambassador of Joshua Perets' new collection with the campaign featured on billboards, buses, subways, store locations and radio across the Quebec province. Elisabetta has appeared in numerous magazine covers, articles and editorials across Canada.

Television

Elisabetta gained much recognition in 2006 with her appearance on the reality television series Loft Story, a Big Brother-inspired show based in Montreal. The season aired from January 2006 until April 2006. Elisabetta appeared in 57 episodes. Loft Story was Quebec's first docu-reality series and got tremendous coverage in the press. Elisabetta then appeared on many talks shows. She also had several cameos on various TV shows (such as 9.5 by Angelo Cadet & Lucien Didier) and music videos.

Elisabetta also appeared in season 1 and 2 of Blue Mountain State for SPIKE TV playing The Pothead girl (Season 1) and Darlene (Season 2) next to Darin Brooks.

Film

Elisabetta played supporting roles in several short films such has Dhamphyr by T.Anthony Gharzouzi, My Secret Garden by Marco Iammatteo and Cheuveux de feu by Mélodie Bibeau. Her work on My Secret Garden with director and producer Marco Iammatteo will later land her her first major role in a feature-length film. She also played Daisy the lead in Bruno-Pierre Houle's short Daisy,a film about a young teenager that makes an incredible discovery about a robot named Daisy.

In the short film "Attachment" directed by Kim Barr Elisabetta plays the beautiful girl, one of the victims of a businessman whose addiction to his wireless turns him into a monster and only a wake up call can stop him. The film was in the official selection of the 2009 Montreal World Film Festival and the Fantasia Film Festival.

"My name is Sandy" is Elisabetta's first major lead in a feature-length film. The film is inspired by a variety of interviews conducted with local sex-workers. The film stars Elisabetta Fantone as Sandy, an illegal immigrant from France who has been working Manhattan's streets for three years. After a long day's work, she is asked by a client if he can document her for a report he's doing on sex-workers. The tale of a young woman’s descent and experiences in the world of prostitution are heard and seen threw the reportage of her latest client, Francis. "My name is Sandy", directed by Marco Iammatteo and photographed by T.Anthony Gharzouzi.

Elisabetta also played Carolyn Thacker on The Mountain a movie for NBC directed by Douglas Barr which is also being used as a pilot for a possible series. The Mountain was aired in 2010.

Elisabetta also played a cameo in several episodes of a French webseries titled Jampack.TV.

Elisabetta recently completed the feature Havana 57 the first North American co-production with Cuba. The drama-thriller feature is directed by Jim Purdy and produced by Carlo Liconti. The story takes place in the 50's before the revolution. Elisabetta plays the leading role of Juliana a torrid Cuban dancer in Havana whose roommate and dancer gets murdered. Juliana seduces the investigating detective Ruben Velez (played by Juan Riedinger), revealing secrets that lead him to the killer but put her in the line of fire of the mob. She is torn between her need to survive and her love for Velez.

Filmography

Recording artist

In January 2007, Elisabetta released her first single Feel a remix of the song by Robbie Williams. The song was partly translated in Italian and has a house-trance style. The song featured on Tycoon Records' MC Mario's Mixdown 2007 distributed by Sony.

Feel hit no.2 on the Club Mix on Mix 96 (now Virgin Radio). The song was played on the Quebec television show Minuit, le soir.

Author

Based on her reality television appearances, Elisabetta was approached with a book deal by Les Publications Charron & cie. The book talks about her experience on the hit show Loft Story 2, and her sudden success. Journal Intime d'une lofteuse was published in May 2008.

Painter

Elisabetta's first painting was sold for $8000 on eBay during her time on Loft Story. Elisabetta gave all the proceeds of the painting to the MIRA Foundation. Her second painting was also created in means to raise money for the RHYTHM FM Radio Foundation. Her first completed collection has 23 acrylic on canvas paintings. The collection, called Various Faces, was presented in Montreal in November 2006 and was featured in the Pangee Gallery in the Fine Art district of Montreal. In October 2009, Elisabetta created and presented a second art collection of acrylic on canvas called Blonde Icons. The collection has 30 paintings featuring famous blonde icons that marked history over the fifty last years. The exhibition took place at the Marche Bonsecours, in Old Montreal. Elisabetta recently signed with Mensi & Rioux, who represent her art work. Several paintings of the Blonde Icons collection are being transported in South Beach Miami at the DejaVu Gallery and Fort Lauredale. In April 2013 Elisabetta debuted on the Canadian West Coast, in Vancouver, with her exhibition titled "Faces Gone Pop" at Kurbatoff Gallery.