Laetitia Casta, whose first name means joy in Latin, is Corsican and Italian on her father's side, and spent her childhood in Normandy. When she was 15 years old, she was discovered on a beach in Corsica by a talent scout. Laetitia persuaded her parents to move to Paris, where her success was almost instantaneous. In barely ten months, a new star was born on the pages of magazines and in the hearts of the French people. Laetitia has worked with such famed photographers as Patrick Demarchelier, Peter Lindbergh, Ellen von Unwerth, Gilles Bensimon and the late Herb Ritts. She has graced the covers of over a hundred fashion magazines around the world.
Laetitia Casta is also an accomplished actress. She made her feature film debut in Asterix et Obelix contre Cesar (1999), the most expensive French film ever made and a smash hit in Europe. She then turned to art house films, such as Les Ames Fortes by Raoul Ruiz.
Her film career continued to flourish with Errance, by Damien Odoul, Le Grand Appartement, by Pascal Thomas, and La Jeune Fille et les Loups, a film by Gilles Legrand. Her newest movie, Nee en 68, will be released on television and has won the Golden Swann of the Cabourg Film Festival in France. Her new play, Elle t'attend, written and directed by Florian Zeller, opens this month at the Theatre Madeleine in Paris. After the play closes, Casta is slated to film a movie about the life of Serge Gainsbourg.
Her international success has made Laetitia a beloved daughter of France, and it was natural for the Association of the Mayors of France to choose her as the new Marianne in 2000, one of France's highest honors.
Laetitia is the mother of two children, Sahteene and Orlando, and she and her family live in Paris.