Eleonora arrives in New York from Lentini where she was born on October 13, 1977, by the artisan Michele Micali, known as “Geppetto” for his wooden manufactures and by Carmela Aparo, called “The marshal” for her practical and authoritarian temperament. She is the third of three daughters. "A 'born actress", her family and some friends say about her, referring to her personality both as an artist and as a woman.
Eleonora has a childhood and an adolescence full of sacrifices but even in adulthood she will not depart from this mold. It grows between the care of the maternal grandmother and the warehouse of oranges in which the mother worked.
In the Lentini of that time, a country neither large nor small, an ancient city that gave mankind priceless assets such as temples and necropolis, oranges were a primary resource.
And it was in that warehouse, the beating heart of commerce, that Eleonora's parents met and fell in love. Michele Micali little more than a little boy dreamed of becoming an actor. He will tell his daughters and his wife several times when one evening he presented himself in front of his father declaring that he would leave for Rome with a cousin, to work for the cinema. But his father cut him off immediately. The family was poor and could not give up two arms that brought money home. The Micali are a working family that earns their living with great pride. This has shaped the education of Eleonora, who never backed down in the face of the sacrifices and fatigue that it took to get there where she arrived. From mother, the so-called "The marshal" inherited determination and strength, while from her father she took those personality traits that characterize her as an artist, first of all: being an incurable dreamer, of those who they are not satisfied with just dreaming, they struggle to transform reality into the dream they had foreshadowed. For Eleonora the father is a support, her biggest fan and supporter, as well as the older sisters, her mother instead, until a few years ago, told her to abandon the idea of being an actress and find a real job . The artistic talents of actress and storyteller emerge since Eleonora was a child. Participating in the first school plays, she realized that acting would be part of her life. At the age of four she already has clear ideas and tells everyone that she will be an actress when she grows up. The enfant prodige improvises, she descends into picaresque and melodramatic characters born of his imagination, giving life to shows in the living room of his home entertains guests and family members who urge parents to attend acting classes because she has it in the blood".
"The best moment at school was that of acting," said the Italian-American actress, who accurately remembers the period in which the first telenovelas from South America arrived in Italy. At the time she was eleven years old. Argentine actress Grecia Colmenares becomes her undisputed idol. So strong was the desire to follow in her footsteps that she no longer wanted to go to high school and attend only an acting school. But Eleonora will have to wait for her age. Studying acting and becoming an actress for Eleonora is not simply a wish, but the fundamental need to assert her authenticity.
She loves acting, through it she manages to dare to get in touch with every part of herself , without leaving anything out. Without excluding ambiguities, suffering, lies, fears, symbolic and real faults.
Moreover, dealing with theater and cinema reveals extreme human problems and a life perspective best. "It is the way I chose to be in the world." After she graduated, only eighteen alone with her dream in her pocket, she moved to Roma to attend the "La Scaletta" theater academy. a new city, she studies, fights with her strong accent to get a good diction. Parallel to the academy, she does various jobs to support herself . These were years of Roman life, of independence, of growth, of stimulating encounters with various important directors in the world of Italian theater. Eleonora finally takes her first steps towards her career. She will begin to gain experience by attracting positive and enthusiastic criticisms. She will follow the scenes of the greatest Italian theaters in various shows, for example "Ippolito" by Euripides directed by Giuseppe Marini, playing the role of the nurse. She will work with several theater directors including Walter Pagliaro, Sergio Ammirata, Elena Suriano. She worked for television in the Rai series "Butta la luna 2" directed by Sindoni, "Nati Ieri" Mediaset directed by Genovese / Miniero and the celebrated fiction "Squadra Antimafia" directed by Pier Belloni Mediaset. In the short film "La figlia di Natasha" directed by Kader Alassane in the title role. In the Roman years she will forge relationships to which she will remain tied today as the one with the improvisation teacher Sabrina Iorio. From her she will learn the approach of the voice that will allow her to sharpen her aptitude for improvisation which she still uses today; like the ability to draw on its Sicilian culture to give strength to the characters she represents.
The past of studies and insights has led her to outline what her strengths are today. In fact its ability to use various dialects is recognized by the director Stefano Maria Palmitessa with whom she begins a very strong relationship, full of artistic stimuli. With him he will give life to collaborations of great depth. It was Palmitessa who pushed Eleonora towards the collection of some real anecdotes that will form the basis from which he will draw the point for the script "Una donna fantasiusa – un nonologo", dedicated to her own maternal grandmother. The text is a huge success that later she will draw "Una donna fantasiusa 2 – un Manhattologo” based on her life in America.
In 2011, while working on a show on the Holocaust (taken from the girl by Polanski's red coat), her life takes a further turn, more intimate and spiritual. She knows the Buddhist philosophy and feels it immediately hers, as if it had always been there, in a hidden part of herself . And it is from here that she begins to shed light on her life and to evaluate the idea of moving to New York.
In the last ten years her theatrical career was high and reached its peak but trying to work for the cinema something had cracked. The auditions were a farce because the interests of the recommended ones prevailed.
This reality discouraged not a little Eleonora who did not intend to stop her career and above all her professional growth for no reason, especially if of such a repugnant nature. Therefore, the idea of going to New York was strengthened. the precariousness of a job not enough to cover the expenses and the hostility of friends and relatives were however crushed by this new, great, spiritual faith: Buddhism.
In the last ten years her career has stood out high reaching the maximum splendor. In 2013 she arrives for the first time in the big Apple. And it's love at first sight. She takes advantage of her short stay by attending a three-month workshop with John Strasberg, son of Lee Strasberg (founder of the Actors Studio). It thus gives vent to her desire to grow and improve her being an actress.
In Eleonora's mind a new certainty appears: "it is here that I will live".
And at the same time, a new great challenge opens up. It will not be easy at all to extricate oneself from the dense bureaucracy linked to immigration in the United States. After a long battle that seemed impossible in 2017, she moved to New York.
Here she began to attend acting classes at Susan Batson Studio. The Batson coach among others by Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise a milestone in American cinema.
At one of his lectures he tells her: 'you are a trouper' that means actress of long experience. Eleonora was very struck by this compliment, of which she did not know the meaning.
Just after one year of New York life, she brings her funny and dear "Una donna fantasiusa -un nonologo" on the stage of F. I.A.O. (the Italian-American federation of Brooklyn), Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo' (NYU University), Lincoln Center Campus (NY), Matera (declared city of culture 2019), at the Festival “Malta meets Matera- Matera meets Malta”, and it opened the Festival “Il Teatro che non c’era” in Rome in 2019 at the Keiros Theatre. The show arrived with great fanfare on the pages of the press. From this it follows "Una donna fantasiusa 2 – un manhattologo" always written and directed by Stefano Maria Palmitessa.
From these 2 monologue, a tv series "................." has been created and the first clapperboard has been scheduled in 2024.
And then...