Dario Fo (Sangiano, Italy 1926 – Milan, Italy 2016) was an Italian actor, director, playwright, set designer, and political activist.

He made his debut as an actor and playwright in the early 1950s. Along with his wife Franca Rame, Fo was an innovative stage thespian with novel and often absurd, political, and exaggerated comedy that makes use of the improvisational styles typical of the Italian Commedia dell’arte.

In 1997, Fo was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Franca Rame (Parabiago, Italy 1929 – Milan, Italy 2013) was an Italian theatre actor, playwright, activist, and politician.

Born into a family with a long theatrical tradition, she made her debut on stage when she was three years old.  She met Dario Fo when she was twenty years old, they married in 1954. Their relationship was both a love story and an enduring artistic and political partnership. Together they founded the theatre company that bears their names, il collettivo Nuova, the La Comune working group, and the Soccorso Rosso organization. Dedicating the last few years of her life to politics, Rame withdrew from public life in 2010.