Natalya Dmitrievna "Natasha" Stefanenko (Russian: Наталья Дмитриевна "Наташа" Стефаненко; born 18 April 1969) is a Russian and Italian[1] actress, model, and television presenter who lives and works in both Italy and Russia.
Early years
Stefanenko was born in Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk), the daughter of a Belarusian-Ukrainian nuclear engineer[2] who worked in a secret unnamed underground city, close to the Ural Mountains. She lived with her family in a closed city. They also owned a dacha beside a lake.[3]
Stefanenko was a swimming champion in her youth, and swam with Alexander Popov. When she was a young girl she swam 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) a day.[3] In 1984, she almost joined the Soviet Olympic swim team, but instead chose to continue with her education.
At the age of 16, Stefanenko went to study in Moscow where she earned a degree in Metal Engineering.[3]
Career
After winning the Look of the Year contest in Moscow in 1991, Stefanenko moved to Milan, where she obtained work as a model. After being scouted in a restaurant by director Beppe Recchia, she made her first television appearance on the variety show La grande sfida, alongside host Gerry Scotti. At the time, Stefanenko was unable to speak the Italian language.[3]
She commenced her acting career with the cinematographic film La grande prugna in 1999.
She played the character Angela Cornelio, one of the protagonists in the television series Nebbie e delitti (Fog and Crimes), which aired on Rai Due from 2005 to 2009. She has also hosted many programmes, including the 2001 edition of Festivalbar, which is an annual series of televised summer concerts performed by both Italian and international pop groups in town squares throughout Italy; and Italia's Next Top Model in 2009. In the same year 2009, she had a role in MediasetCanale 5's police drama series Distretto di Polizia 9 (Police District 9).
Since 2007, she is also a host of Russia's TV show Snimite eto nemedlenno, based on the British programme What Not to Wear.[4]
She also co-starred in a 2001 advert Natasha Stefanenko : La gigantessa. She played a giantess, who unknowingly grew to a gigantic size.
Personal life
In December 1995, Stefanenko married Italian entrepreneur and ex-model Luca Sabbioni, and they have one daughter, Sasha, who was born in 2000.
