From Umbertide, in the Italian region of Umbria, Valentina Lodovini studied at the School of Dramatic Arts in Perugia and then moved to Rome, where she continued her studies at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Her first roles as an film actress were in Ovunque sei (2004), by Michele Placido, presented at the Venice Film Festival, L'amico di famiglia (2006), by Paolo Sorrentino and A casa nostra (2006), by Francesca Comencini.


She does not like conventions and tries to balance her work in theatre and television series, some of great success such as Distretto di Polizia e 48 Ore. With Pornorama, Marc Routhemund’s “spicy” film (winner of the Silver Bear in 2005 for Sophie Scholl - The Final Days), she had great success in Germany. She starred in Carlo Mazzacurati’s film La giusta distanza (2007), where she plays the role of Mara, a primary school teacher who moves to a small village and has to deal with the distrust and racism of its inhabitants. With this interpretation Lodovini received her first nomination for David di Donatello awards as best actress. In the same year, she appears in the television mini-series Coco Chanel, directed by Christian Duguay, in the Italian television channel Rai Uno.


Valentina Lodovini was considered, along with Carolina Crescentini, to be part of “the best youth of Italian cinema”, in Massimo Venier’s film Generazione 1000 euro (2008). She shined in Daniele Vicari’s Il passato è una terra straniera. Alongside another talent of Italian cinema, Alba Rohrwacher, her colleague at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, in Rome, she can be found in the small pearl, Riprendimi, a fake documentary with a low budget, which portrays insecurity in work and in relationships, alternating between reality and fiction.


In 2009 she came back to the big screen with Fortapàsc, by Marco Risi: a film about Giancarlo Siani, a journalist for “Il Mattino”, who was killed by the Camorra in 1985. This interpretation, just as that in Generazione mille euro, win her the Ciak d’oro revelation of the year award. After several difficult and dramatic roles, Valentina was chosen for a role in Luca Miniero’s comedy Benvenuti al Sud (2010), a recreation of the very successful French comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis. Also in 2010, she participated in Luca Lucini’s comedy, La donna della mia vita and, in 2011, she was part of the cast for Veronesi’s comedy, Una donna per amica. After Gianni Di Gregorio’s comedy, Buoni a nulla, she filmed Ma che bella sorpresa by Alessandro Genovesi and I milionari by Alessandro Piva. Her most recent film, the thriller La verità sta in cielo by Roberto Faenza, has just premiered in Italy.