Piece by piece, he has grounded his artistic vocation on solid cultural foundations, starting with a Degree in Modern Literature with a focus on Performing Arts, achieved with top marks and honours at the Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, and with a Diploma from the Drama Academy of the private resident theatre Teatro Bellini in Naples.
In 1999 he founded the TEATROZETA Company, of which he is Artistic Director, an organisation now recognised by the Ministry of Culture as a production company (Art. 13, paragraph 3) within the FNSV (formerly FUS). Alongside production and directing, his career stands out for a pioneering commitment to creating and regenerating performance spaces: in 2004, after converting an old garage in L’Aquila, he founded Zeta OFF in Via Savini; in 2005 he brought his experience to Rome by founding Teatro EUR, where he also served as Artistic Director from 2008 to 2010. Also in 2005 he was among the founders of the “Circuito dei Teatri Possibili” consortium in Milan and served as Artistic Director of Teatri Possibili L’Aquila until 2009; in the same period he also curated the “Volo libero” theatre season for ATAM, the Abruzzo–Molise theatre circuit, at Teatro S. Agostino in L’Aquila.
His path is especially tied to Abruzzo, where he lives and where for years he has pursued continuous activity as actor, playwright, director and producer, committed to promoting theatre culture and training young actors, with attention also to social and local-community work. In 2011 he created a permanent study centre for the training of professional actors, the L’Aquila Academy of Dramatic Arts, linked to the multi-purpose Parco delle Arti in L’Aquila, where he teaches on an ongoing basis. In parallel, between 2010 and 2012 he taught “Effective Communication” at the University of L’Aquila within the Master’s programme “ITTP Formazione e Comunicazione”, while in 2021–2024 he gave lectures and taught as an instructor in cultural-enterprise management at the University of Teramo and Roma Tre University.
Among the most significant building blocks of his cultural work is the conception and founding of public-facing spaces and projects: he is the creator and founder of the only private spoken-drama theatre building in Abruzzo, Cinema Teatro Zeta, inaugurated in December 2012 and today one of the few usable performance venues in the regional capital. The venue was expanded in 2019 and is now home to the Morgese Foundation. He is also the founder of Cinema Zeta, recognised by the Ministry as an arthouse cinema, and of the children’s theme park Abruzzimaginarium in L’Aquila. In 2022 he added a new piece to his research by founding, in Cagliari in the heart of the historic centre, the Zeta Actor Studio, the fifth space of his career, hosting periodic workshops with internationally renowned masters and experimental showcases.
An internationally acclaimed actor, director, producer, writer and teacher, he works in Italy and abroad, in recent years across Europe, the USA and Canada, as a guest of prestigious institutions and universities: Italian Cultural Institutes (London, New York, Paris, Barcelona), the Italian School in Tirana, the University of Catalonia, the Consulate General of Boston, the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, the Columbus Centre in Toronto, the headquarters of the Dante Alighieri committees in Liverpool and Manchester, the Barfuss Theatre in Berlin, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Auditorium Fast Hotel in Kraków, as well as Roma Tre University, the Universities of Salerno, L’Aquila and Teramo, and the Goethe-Institut in Rome.
Over the course of his career he has starred in major events, such as the 2000 inauguration of the Cavea of Renzo Piano’s new Auditorium in Rome with West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein (directed by Andrea Renzi), and his participation in Expo Milano 2015 events at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. He curated children’s projects for the TSA Teatro Stabile d’Abruzzo, for the Teatro Nazionale della Toscana, and for MIUR. He was the spoken voice in the sacred work for choir and large orchestra “Passio et Resurrectio” by Sergio Rendine, recorded for Naxos; as a spoken voice with orchestra he also collaborated with I Solisti Aquilani, the Barattelli Concert Society of L’Aquila, and the Teatro Marrucino of Chieti.
He has worked with directors such as Maurizio Scaparro, Peppino Patroni Griffi, Andrea Camilleri, Walter Manfré, Livio Galassi, Tato Russo, Leopoldo Mastelloni, Laura Angiulli, Andrea Renzi, Riccardo Reim, Pino Micol, Rolando Macrini, and has shared the stage with actors including Paolo Gassmann, Ugo Pagliai, Mariano Rigillo, Cicci Rossini, Franco Castellano, Pino Micol, Vittorio Viviani, Nello Mascia, Anna Mazzamauro, Sebastiano Lo Monaco, Massimo Venturiello, Iaia Forte, Eduardo Siravo, Vanessa Gravina, Lino Capolicchio, Jared McNeill and others. He has also taken part in international events alongside artists such as Fabrizio Bosso, Amii Stewart, Roberto Murolo, Beppe Barra, Liliana De Curtis, Vittorio Grigolo, Teresa De Sio, Sergio Rendine, Carlo Crivelli, Caty Marchand.
His work has intersected with numerous festivals: he starred at the Todi Arte Festival (2005), the Quartieri dell’Arte Festival in Viterbo (2007), the Spoleto Festival (2009), the I Cantieri dell’Immaginario Festival in L’Aquila (2010–2016) and the Mezzaestate Festival in Tagliacozzo (2014). He took part twice in the Napoli Teatro Festival: in 2015 with La bottega del caffè directed by Maurizio Scaparro and in 2016 in Il veleno del Teatro directed by Pino Micol; later he also appeared at the Campania Teatro Festival in 2021 with Siddhartha. For about ten years he has also been among the organisers of the Cantieri dell’Immaginario Festival in L’Aquila.
As an author he has published two stage plays, “Masaniello, 1647, Naples is in revolution” and “Federico II, vento di Soave” (Zikkurat editore, 2009). Also in 2009, commissioned by the Goethe-Institut in Rome, he wrote and directed “Muro contro Muro” for the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He designed and directed the three-year international project INTERCULTURA, performing in Paris (Italian Cultural Institute, 2015), Barcelona (Institute of Culture and University of Barcelona, 2015) and Berlin (Barfuss Theater, 2016). In 2021 he directed and adapted Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, directing Mariano Rigillo at the Campania Teatro Festival; in 2023/24, accompanied by the voice of Antonella Ruggiero, he performed The Prince by Machiavelli with Paolo Di Sabatino and Renzo Ruggieri. In May 2024, with the Fabrizio Bosso Quartet Jazz, he starred in and directed “Novecento” by Alessandro Baricco at Sala Umberto in Rome. In 2025 he debuted at the Festival Plautino in Sarsina with “Hamlet – a grain of sand in the mind’s eye” (directed by Jared McNeill), where he is also the translator of the texts, and in the same year he debuted with “Echoes of the Spirit” with Pamela Villoresi. On 27 January 2022 the show “Chronicles of the Shoah” by Giuseppe Manfridi, directed by Livio Galassi, with his participation and live music by trumpeter Fabrizio Bosso and pianist J.O. Mazzariello, after its debut at Teatro Eliseo in Rome, was broadcast in prime time on Rai 5. He is also the creator and promoter of L’Aquila Libro Fest, where he presents the show “Encounters, Clashes and Stories” with Lello Arena.
After graduating from the Academy, he collaborated with repertory theatres and major production organisations, including Teatro Stabile di Napoli, Teatro Stabile di Calabria, Teatro Stabile d’Abruzzo, Teatri Uniti di Napoli, Florian Teatro d’Innovazione of Pescara, Teatri Possibili Milano, Sicilia Teatro, and Teatro della Pergola in Florence, as well as opera institutions such as Teatro San Carlo in Naples and Teatro Marrucino in Chieti.
Throughout his career he has received significant recognition: in 2008 he served on the jury of the national actors’ award Hystrio; in 2009 he was awarded the Ennio Flaiano Special Prize for the show “The Case of Dorian Gray”; in 2010 he received the Gassman Prize as Best Young Actor, and in 2011 the Premio Napoli Cultural Classic for the same reasons. In 2014 he served on the jury of the MarteLive award.
International activity
For years Manuele Morgese, as an actor, director and teacher, has led workshops and performances in prestigious international venues with partners such as the Italian Cultural Institutes of New York, Paris and Barcelona, the Italian School in Tirana, the Goethe-Institut in Berlin, the Società Dante Alighieri in Rome, and the Dante committees in Boston and Philadelphia (USA), and in Toronto and Oshawa (Canada). In 2019 he performed his show on the Shoah in Auschwitz and Kraków with the MIUR delegation. He performed at the National Theatre of Tirana – Metropol Teatri and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with the show Revolution. In 2024 he toured the United Kingdom, where he read and performed THE DIVINE COMEDY at the Italian Cultural Institute in London (where he also ran a theatre workshop), then in Liverpool and Manchester. On 19 November 2024, as a guest of the Festival of Italian Creativity, he starred in Boston (USA) with The Prince by Machiavelli, in collaboration with the Berklee Conservatory, accompanied on piano by Nicolas Giusti. In 2025 he returns to the USA at the Italian Cultural Institute in Detroit and at the Italian Embassy in Washington as an ambassador of the Società Dante Alighieri, then returns to Boston to begin a new project in collaboration with the L’Aquila Conservatory “A. Casella” and the Berklee Conservatory with the show Rossellini.
Television
1997 - CANALE 5, MEDIASET. “BEATO TRA LE DONNE”: live broadcast, 27 November 1997-
Directed by P. F. PINGITORE, with Paolo Bonolis; WINNER OF THE TENTH EPISODE,
performs the monologue “Masaniello” by E. Porta, A. Pugliese, with adaptation by C. Manfredi
“BEATO TRA LE DONNE, GRAND FINAL”: live broadcast, 18 Dec. 1997
Directed by P. F. PINGITORE, performs the monologue “Madonna de lu Carmine” by R. De Simone.
1998 - RAI, “Un posto al sole” TV soap opera - plays the role of Mattia Amato.
1999 - RAI 3, “Saranno maturi” with S. Dandini and C. Guzzanti – sketch, role of a police officer
2000 - RAI (Sat 2000) ECHELMESSIA by Ennio de Concini - event show. RAI 3, “La
Squadra” TV series - GUEST, episode 44
2001 CANALE 5 “Cuore” TV series, directed by Maurizio Zaccaro
2003 - RAI 1 - RAI educational - Theatre actors special
2004 “La Squadra” Season V
2005 “Il mestiere dell’attore” directed by A. Zechini – RAI
“Orgoglio” Season II – directed by Giorgio Serafini - “Orgoglio” Season III – directed by Giorgio Serafini
Advertising
1999 RAI 1 “Per tutta la vita” teleshopping for Tecnocasa with F. Frizzi
- RAI “Giro d’Italia” teleshopping for FIAT
1999 TESTIMONIAL FOR BARILLA – Barilla Calendar 2000
- CANALE 5: “Ciao Darwin 2” teleshopping for “Infostrada”
2001 – TV COMMERCIAL (ITALY) FIESTA FERRERO - Testimonial
2006 – Series of TV commercials - Ego Casa real estate
2009 Web commercial - BAYERN testimonial - 2010 Ego Casa 2 – directed by M. Chiarini
Cinema
1999 - June “UN UOMO PER BENE” directed by M. Zaccaro with M. Placido, M. Melato, L. Gullotta,
G. Gemma - CLEMI production
2015 NOLI TIMERE lead role with Lino Capolicchio – directed by Giuseppe Tandoi
2021 Il segno del perdono directed by Marco Zaccarelli
Short films
“Vita a sorpresa .....gli animi” by Dario Sallusto - Naples
- 5/96. “Pilato” by Cinzia Mirabella - Salerno 11/96; “Cercasi compagno di studio” by Gian Luca
Caruso - Naples 97 - 2006 "La linea" directed by BENOIS TETELIN
2009 MI FA MALE – Short film – Directed by Luca Cococcetta
2012 DISTANZA – lead role with Iaia Forte - Short film – Directed by Luca Cococcetta
Mime
1996 - TEATRO CILEA - Naples - Accademia dello Spettacolo of Irma Cardano and Virginia
Vincenti
“Don Quijote”, dance performance.
Classical dance school directed by Valeria de Mata: “Il naufragio”
1997 - TEATRO SAN CARLO DI NAPOLI (independent opera institution) “NABUCCO” by G. Verdi, with
Renato Bruson, directed by F. Sparvoli
1998 - “GISELLE”, with the San Carlo ballet company.
1999 - M.D.A. of Rome: itinerant performance at the Archaeological Museum and Castel S. Elmo in Naples,
choreography by A. Gatti.
Work for children
For years, since 1996, he worked as a holiday resort entertainer and head entertainer. He devoted himself
to the world of children as a trainer in schools of all levels and as a theatre author and director.
Since 2024, through the FOUNDATION that bears his name, he defends the rights of minors and separated fathers.