Rocco Tanica

Rocco Tanica (Milan, 1964) is a pianist, song, theatre and television writer, comedian and band member of Elio e le Storie Tese. He debuted at 17 years old on tour as Roberto Vecchioni's pianist. In the 1980's, he met Elio, with whom he composed the songs that made them famous in the Milanese music scene: "John Holmes", "Silos", and "Cara ti amo". Their first album was "Elio Samaga Hukapan Kariyana Turu" in 1989. During the same period, he worked in a recording studio as a session musician and together with Claudio Bisio wrote his first comedy show. They then collaborated as writers for Bisio's future shows as well as for TV. He also wrote for Paola Cortellesi, Ale and Franz, the program Zelig, Le Iene, and various comedy TV shows including Razzolaser (2015), which he also hosted. He was also in the cast of the films Il cielo è sempre più blu and Asini, directed by Antonello Grimaldi, and the series La dottoressa Giò 3 and La compagnia del cigno, directed by Ivan Cotroneo. He wrote the books "Lo sbiancamento dell'anima" (Mondadori, 2019), the first book ever written with artificial intelligence, "Non siamo mai stati sulla terra" (Il Saggiatore, 2022) and "Scritti scelti male" (La nave di Teseo, 2023). He lives and works in Milan.