Born Aria Argento, on Sep 20, 1975, in Rome, Italy.

Asia's one of those actresses who looks a lot hotter in print than she does in pictures.

It's a trait she seems to have inherited from her father, Dario Argento, the George Romero of Italy. To read about his films is to get the impression that Argento was to cinema what Stravinsky and Shostakovich were to music, that he had deconstructed the horror genre, reassembled it in a way that no one had ever seen, and incidentally changed the whole medium forever. And indeed, his films have won their share of awards and he himself the title of "Best New Director" and "The Alfred Hitchcock of Italy". To actually see his films, however, is another matter entirely: A horror-aficionado friend of mine once rented the award-winning Suspiria (considered by many to be Argento's masterpiece), but between the corny special effects and lighting, the disappearing plot, and the irritatingly constant and monotonous soundtrack, my friend lost all her movie-picking rights and I gained a new appreciation for all the crappy horror flicks made here in the U.S.

The Emperor's new clothes that have hidden the naked mediocrity of Dario's work for so long then fell to Asia as hand-me-downs. To see her without knowing anything about her is to behold a generally unremarkable woman distinguished only by her mural-like tattoos. But wrapped in the mantle of drama and controversy as she has been since her birth (when the registration office refused to accept her name and christened her "Aria" instead), she starts to look a lot more interesting. Between her acting awards (she's been acting since she was nine), music career, frequent nudity in print and film (including one infamously directed by her own father), alleged hit-and-run incident, her family's involvement in the horror biz ("Sometimes I think my father gave me life," she once said, "because he needed a lead actress for his films"), and her own horror flick credits, Asia's image in Italy, as near as I can tell, has become a colorful and compelling mix of Christina Ricci, pre-Charmed Rose McGowan, and Marilyn Manson. "Aria" Argento is someone I might not think twice about if I saw her in a film, but "Asia" Argento, Dario's little girl and the Devil's spawn, is harder to ignore.

Also sprach Golem.

	AN EYE: “It's on my shoulder, I got it on my first trip to Amsterdam when I was 14. I was so high on hash, and while I knew that I wanted an eye, I really didn’t know how I wanted it. The guy at the tattoo place felt sorry for me, and anyway he did it.”
	TWO SNAKES AND A SUN: “It’s over my ass. I did the two snakes in Minneapolis when I was shooting Trauma. I was 16. The sun that’s in between, I did that in Amsterdam (again) when I was 17. The snakes were taken from a Medusa statue that I saw in Rome, and they were interwined around her waist. And the sun ... I dunno, I drew it ... but all these tattoos, I have to say, I would have a million symbolic reasons that were very true at the time I was having the tattoo, very romantic in a way ... You could say, ‘I got this tattoo for a reason’, but not really. I really liked those drawings, and this is the bottom line.”
	AN ANGEL: “It’s taken from a painting by the Belgian painter Delvaux ... But she’s not an angel; I added the wings. And I did it there (rising from her pubis mound) not for some sexual iconography of a flying pussy, but more to hide it from my father, who was not so happy about me having all these tattoos. I remember when I finally showed it to him, like three years after, ’cos I managed to hide it for a couple of years, he said that now I could fulfill my dream and work in the circus as the tattooed wonder.”
	ANNA: “The last one I got, and maybe it’s the only one I got for a reason. It’s my sister’s name (the deceased Anna — who Scarlet Diva is dedicated to) on my ribs. Because I remembered this line by Blixa Bargeld: ‘I don’t know who cut you off my ribs’ — as of Eve for Adam. It looks like a jail tatoo, something very dirty.”

Film

• Boarding Gate (2008) .... Sandra
• Go Go Tales (2007) .... Monroe
• La Terza madre (2007; aka “Mother of Tears: The Third Mother”) .... Sarah Mandy
• Une vieille maîtresse (2007; aka “The Last Mistress”) .... Vellini
• Live Freaky Die Freaky (2006) .... Habagail Folger [voice]
• Marie Antoinette (2006) .... Comtesse du Barry
• Transylvania (2006) .... Zingarina
• Cindy: The Doll Is Mine (2005) .... Cindy Sherman/The model
• Land of the Dead (2005) .... Slack
• Last Days (2005) .... Asia
• The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) .... Sarah
• The Keeper (2004) .... Gina
• Live Freaky Die Freaky (2003) .... [voice]
• Starring (2003)
• Ginostra (2002) .... The nun
• La Sirène rouge (2002) .... Anita
• XXX (2002) .... Yelena
• L'Assenzio (2001)
• Les Morsures de l'aube (2000) .... Violaine
• Scarlet Diva (2000) .... Anna Battista
• La Tua lingua sul mio cuore (1999)
• B. Monkey (1998) .... Beatrice (B. Monkey)
• Il Fantasma dell'opera (1998; aka “The Phantom of the Opera”) .... Christine Daae
• New Rose Hotel (1998) .... Sandii
• Viola bacia tutti (1997; aka “Viola Kisses Everybody”) .... Viola
• Compagna di viaggio (1996; aka “Travelling Companion”) .... Cora
• La Sindrome di Stendhal (1996; aka “Stendhal's Syndrome”) .... Detective Anna Manni
• Il Cielo è sempre più blu (1995; aka “Bits and Pieces”) .... Cousin
• DeGenerazione (1994)
• Perdiamoci di vista! (1994; aka “Let's Not Keep in Touch”) .... Arianna
• La Reine Margot (1994; aka “Queen Margot”) .... Charlotte of Sauve
• Condannato a nozze (1993; aka “Condemned to Wed”) .... Olivia
• Trauma (1993) .... Aura Petrescu
• Le Amiche del cuore (1992; aka “Close Friends”) .... Simona
• Palombella rossa (1989; aka “Red Wood Pigeon”) .... Valentina
• Zoo (1989) .... Martina
• La Chiesa (1988; aka “Cathedral of Demons”, “The Church”, “Demon Cathedral”, “Demons 3”, “In the Land of the Demons”) .... Lotte
• Demoni 2 (1986; aka “Demons 2”) .... Ingrid

• Milady (2005) .... Sally La Chèvre
• Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror (2000) .... Herself

• 125 milioni di caz..te (2001) .... Host
• Les Misérables (2000) .... Éponine Thénardier
• Sogni e bisogni (1984) .... Asia Argento

• XXX: A Filmmakers Diary (2003) .... Herself

• Asia Argento Is a Hottie
  Salon (Aug 9, 2002)
  You just can't take your eyes off her

Cyber Temples

• Asia Argento Nude Celebrity Movie Reviews
  Mr. Skin
  Bio, filmography, and nude stills and clips from her films

Miscellaneous

• Asia Argento for The Sims 2
  An attempt at making Asia into a Sim
• Asia Argento Filmography
  Internet Movie Database
  Always up-to-date filmography
• Asia Argento
  Wikipedia
  Asia Argento in wikireality