Carmen Russo

Carmen Russo
Russo at the Versiliana Festival in 2008.
Born	Carmela Carolina Fernanda Russo (1959-10-03) October 3, 1959 (age 57) Genoa, Italy
Occupation	Film actor, singer
Years active	1975–present
Spouse(s)	Enzo Paolo Turchi[](1989–present)

Carmela Carolina Fernanda "Carmen" Russo is an Italian dancer, actress, television personality and singer.

Russo started her career as a model in the mid-1970s participating in several beauty contests in Italy. She first came to the public's attention for her roles in the commedia erotica all'italiana, (sex comedy) genre, such as Mia moglie torna a scuola, Giovani, belle... probabilmente ricche and Paulo Roberto Cotechiño centravanti di sfondamento.

She subsequently established herself as a television star in the 1980s with the variety shows Drive In, Risatissima and Grand Hotel. In 2003 and 2006 she also participated in the Italian and Spanish version of the reality show Celebrity Survivor. She won in the Spanish version Supervivientes. During her career she released also three unsuccessful studio albums, Stars on Donna, Le canzoni di "Drive in..." and Una notte italiana and she was also chosen many times as a model for Playmen magazine during the 1980s.

Russo was born in Genoa, on October 3, 1959. Her father Giovanni Russo was a Sicilian policeman, and her mother Emilian Giuseppina Gherardini, worked as a cashier at the cinema "Olimpia". After her parents' move to Pavullo nel Frignano, a town in the province of Modena, Emilia-Romagna and in 1969 her family return in Genoa, where she joined a dance academy. In 1973, she finished middle school and her parents entered her at the Istituto Tecnico per il Turismo, in Genoa, so that she does not give dance her full attention. With sacrifices she followed the dance lesson of Wanda Nardi, the most important dance school of the time in Genoa and she also began working as a model mannequin, for the department store Coin she do a poster advertising.