Zeudi Araya

Zeudi Araya

Date of Birth: 10 February 1951, Asmara, Eritrea, Ethiopia

Wikipedia has a pretty good bio for Ms Araya:

Zeudi Araya was the daughter of an Eritrean politician and niece of a diplomat in Rome, she became Miss Ethiopia in 1969. On a journey to Italy, she recorded a commercial for coffee, and was discovered by the director Luigi Scattini, who cast her in his movie La ragazza dalla pelle di luna in 1972. Several roles in erotic movies followed, most of them directed by Scattini. She appeared in the Italian version of Playboy magazine in February 1977. From the early 80s Araya withdrew from acting, and has since then been producing movies.

She was married to film producer Franco Cristaldi, who had previously been married to Claudia Cardinale, until his death in 1992. She now lives with the director Massimo Spano, with whom she has a son.

The only thing I really have to add is that she was one of the first true black female stars in Italy, emerging a few years before Laura Gemser (who could be looked on as her natural successor). I don’t think she’s ever been interviewed at any length about her film career, which is a shame.

There’s a fun interview with her on YouTube (in Italian of course) – the comments alone are worth a look!

  • Ragazza fuoristrada, La (1971)
  • Ragazza dalla pelle di luna, La (1972) aka The Sinner …. Simone
  • Corpo, Il (1974) aka The Body …. Princess
  • Preda, La (1974) aka The Prey …. Laggaina
  • Peccatrice, La (1975) aka The Sinner …. Debra
  • Signor Robinson, mostruosa storia d’amore e d’avventure, Il (1976) aka Mr. Robinson …. Venerdi’
  • Giallo napoletano (1978) aka Atrocious Tales of Love and Revenge …. Elizabeth
  • Tesoro mio (1979) aka Atrocious Tales of Love and Revenge…. Tesoro Hoaua
  • Paladini – storia d’armi e d’amori, I (1983) aka Hearts and Armour…. Marfisa
  • Giorno prima, Il (1987) aka Control … Sheba

Producer:

  • Marciando nel buio (1995) aka Marching in Darkness (USA)
About Matt Blake 890 Articles
The WildEye is a blog dedicated to the wild world of Italian cinema (and, ok, sometimes I digress into discussing films from other countries as well). Peplums, comedies, dramas, spaghetti westerns... they're all covered here.

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