A native of Richmond Hill, Ontario and raised in Newmarket, Hallmark viewers will recognize Italia Ricci for starring roles in the Hallmark Channel original movies “Rome in Love,” “Love in Winterland” and “Breakup Boot Camp.”
Ricci most notably starred in the Netflix political drama “Designated Survivor” created by David Guggenheim and executive produced by Simon Kinberg. The series also starred Kiefer Sutherland, Kal Penn, Maggie Q and Natascha McElhone. Ricci played Emily Rhodes, the no-nonsense Chief of Staff to Sutherland’s Tom Kirkman. The conspiracy thriller centers on a lower level United States Cabinet member who is suddenly appointed President after a catastrophic attack during the State of the Union kills everyone above him in the Presidential line of succession.
Other Netflix credits include her leading role as Dr. Sydney Burke in the Netflix original series “The Imperfects,” a grunge-horror-comedy which follows Dr. Burke’s journey to remedy results of a genetic experiment that produced monstrous side effects for her subjects.
Ricci earned immense praise and multiple nominations for her performance in ABC Family’s drama series “Chasing Life” in the lead role of April Carver a 20-something smart and quick-witted aspiring journalist trying to work her way up the ladder at a Boston newspaper by attempting to impress her hardnosed editor. Just as her career starts taking off, she receives news that she has been diagnosed with cancer.
Ricci recurred during the first season of “Supergirl,” which aired on CBS, as the love-to-hate villain Siobhan Smythe, otherwise known as Silver Banshee. She is the latest hire by Calista Flockhart’s media mogul Cat Grant. Ricci’s character was first introduced as a workplace adversary for Melissa Benoist’s heroine but later became a much more deadly foe when she takes on the mantle of DC Comics villain Silver Banshee. The character had a five episode arc.
Ricci always had a burning desire to be in the entertainment business. Beginning her career at seven years old, she starred in numerous local theatre productions and continued to do so throughout high school. While majoring in drama in college at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Ricci participated again in school productions and did a little modeling during summers. As much as she enjoyed performing, Ricci planned on her entertainment career consisting of entertainment law. However, one day in college Ricci’s friend asked her to be an extra with him on the movie American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile. During a lunch break, one of the writers approached her and asked her if she would like to audition to be upgraded from extra to a featured player and she booked it. Before she knew it, she was cast in the next American Pie movie, American Pie Presents: Beta House.
After graduating from Queen’s University Ricci deferred her plans for law school to relocate to tinsel town to give acting a serious shot; giving herself a one year limit to see if she could make a living doing what she loves. She immediately landed a recurring role as Chase Ravenwoo" on Disney XD’s original series “Aaron Stone.”
Ricci went on to book guest-starring roles on such television shows as “CSI: Las Vegas,” “House,” “Greek” and “How I Met Your Mother.” She followed these with the recurring role of Sasha on the Comedy Central series “Secret Girlfriend” and the lead role of Maggie on the hit Cartoon Network live-action series “Unnatural History.” Ricci has also found success on the big screen. In 2014, she played an early love interest for title character Jon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in the fall comedy feature Don Jon, and was seen in the lead role of Allison in the 2014 Sony thriller The Remaining, a film that follows a group of friends trying to survive the end of the world according to the Bible, written and directed by Casey La Scala.
When Ricci isn’t acting on location, she resides in both Los Angeles and Toronto spending time at home with her family, which includes her husband, actor Robbie Amell, and their son. Ricci and Amell also co-own and operate F45 Clarkson (f45training.com/ca/studio/clarkson), a fitness studio; Cured Catering (ordercured.com), a gourmet charcuterie and catering company and aan organic and sustainable loungewear line, Veld Amsterdam (veld.com), among other businesses. She is also involved with the non-profits Stand Up To Cancer and has served as an Ambassador for over 10 years. Ricci volunteers as much time as she can when she is in Los Angeles at Children’s Hospital LA (CHLA) and is a Brand Ambassador for Stupid Cancer.
Follow Italia Ricci on Instagram and Twitter only at these official pages.