Italia Conti

Italia Emily Stella Conti (1873 – 8 February 1946) was an English actress and the founder of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London.

Life Italia Emily Stella Conti was born in London in 1873 to Luigi Conti, an Italian opera singer and member of Garibaldi's Mille expedition, and his English wife Emily Mary Castle (1843–1914). The family moved to Brighton. Luigi Conti died in 1917 in Brookwood Asylum.

Conti wrote to Ellen Terry, who arranged acting lessons for her. Her debut as an actress was a small part in The Last Word at the Lyceum Theatre, London. on which Conti was working. Conti's training also would lead to Lawrence's appearance in Max Reinhardt's The Miracle, staged in London and Fifinella, directed by Basil Dean, for the Liverpool Repertory Theatre (now the Liverpool Playhouse).

Charles Hawtrey had asked Italia Conti to train the children to act in Where the Rainbow Ends. Doing this led to Conti's founding of her drama school, the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. In 1925, the academy moved to Lamb's Conduit Street. Bombing in May 1940 destroyed the building, and Conti faced a serious financial loss. The school would be revived, however, at the Tavistock Little Theatre in Bloomsbury.

Conti's pupil, Gertrude Lawrence, went on to be a great star of the theatre.

Italia Conti died at Evelyn Cottage, Southbourne, Bournemouth, on 8 February 1946. Her school survives into the 21st century and has moved into a purpose-built facility in Woking, Surrey.