Biography

Raphael is an Italian & Swiss actor/producer born in Geneva, Switzerland. He became passionate about acting and movies at a very young age. It was in the 1980s that he discovered all the happiness and deep emotions that films could create. He grew up watching a lot of French movies starring actors like Jean-Paul Belmondo, Louis de Funès and Bourvil, among others but also American actors such as Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Michael Douglas, Clint Eastwood, Michael J. Fox, Jim Carrey, Nicolas Cage and many more.

He was part of a school play written by his teacher Jean-Marc Hohl in the late 80s in a small village named Puplinge. The show's name was "Il faut vraiment être dans la lune pour voir la vie en rose" ("You really have to be on the moon to see life in pink"). In the early 1990s, he enjoyed and developed his skills in high school (Foron), attending teacher Gus Horn's diction and stage play classes where his natural and emotional skills were said to impress the teacher. His passion became so intense that he began buying various books written by movie critics such as Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide, Roger Ebert's, Halliwell's Film Guide, Gene Siskel's, and was unable to put them down, gaining a huge amount of knowledge of movie history. Later, even when working in Geneva in various roles to make a living, he nurtured his love for the art by discovering tons of movies ranging from classical genres to blockbusters & independent ones. He also attended classes at the Grütli Theater and Cinema Club's lab to get some camera operation work experience and to gain editing skills.

In the early 2000s, he began acting - mostly as an extra and in small roles - in some French, Swiss and international TV series and films. In 2009, he bumped into his childhood friend Joachim Levy, Swiss Director, Screenwriter and Showrunner, with whom he started to work with and joined "The Bank TV Series" project a short while later. He became one of the Executive Producers on The Bank's Production crew working on the financing of, and the development of the series.

Based in Geneva (as November 2019), Raphael travels regularly to many places, such as Paris, Sarajevo, Los Angeles, Riga & the UK, to widen his professional network in the TV and movie entertainment field. He's associated with Showrunner Joachim Levy for years as producer, but later in 2019 he also got associated with German Director Alexander Hahn to co-produce movies & also met UK based producer Russell Gow to develop new projects as co-producer the same year. Lately, he is strongly working along with German producer Willi Kamarad on many solid projects.
- IMDb mini biography by: Lynda Piper