Rita Cortese

Cortese was born in Buenos Aires on 5 August 1949. She is of Spanish and Italian descent. In 1967, she started studying Philosophy and Letters, but dropped out a year later. She began studying acting at 24 years old in 1973 with professor Néstor Raimondi, and later with Carlos Gandolfo, two of the "four great acting teachers" of the time. She was also a student of theatre director Roberto Villanueva, who directed her in multiple plays. Her first professional role was in the play Marathón (1980), written by Ricardo Monti and directed by Jaime Kogan. In the 1980s, Cortese was part of the Argentine Open Theatre, an independent theatre movement in resistance of the 1976–83 civil–military dictatorship in Argentina. Typically a supporting actress, she had her first lead role in a feature film in Inheritance, released in Argentina in 2002.