The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony kicked off with a dazzling display of music, dance, and pageantry — and one famous Italian was at the center of it all.
Matilda De Angelis presided as the composer for “Armonia” — Italian for harmony — inspired by the work of the famed architect and Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova. During the piece, 70 performers from the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala — the premier theater arts program in Italy — turned San Siro Stadium into a living, breathing museum. The performers transformed from statues to dancers, dazzling everyone in attendance, as De Angelis marveled at the spectacle unfolding around her.
Check out the NBCOlympics.com live blog for non-stop Opening Ceremony updates!
But who is De Angelis, the woman armed with a baton and a dazzling black and white gown during the Opening Ceremony?
Keep reading to find out.
Who is Matilda De Angelis?
Born on September 11, 1995, De Angelis is an Italian actress and singer best known in the United States for appearing on the 2020 miniseries The Undoing. While fans in the United States may not know much about the star than than, De Angelis is a household name in her home country.
Her first acting role came in 2016’s Italian Race — which earned a nomination for a David di Donatello Award for Best Actress. Just four years later, she won the prestigious award for her work on The Incredible Story of Rose Island.
De Angelis primarily acts in Italian-language films. Her most notable works to date is a starring role in the Italian historical drama 2023 streaming series The Law According to Lidia Poët, and in the 2025 film Dracula.
The 30-year-old is also an established artist in the music industry. De Angelis released her first single in 2016 (“Seventeen”) and released a full-length studio album in 2022, Ritorno al futuro/Back to the Future.
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In a 2024 interview with fashion magazine L’Officiel, De Angelis expressed her thoughts on balancing acting and music moving forward.
“One day if I want to breathe a different air I could return to music, not necessarily living it as a mainstream project, rather to indulge in the desire to experiment,” she explained. “I’m an actress, I feel like an actress, I want to be an actress and I want to do what I do well.”
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Her passion for the arts — and the respect she has for others — has made her a fan favorite star in Italy, as evidenced by how she conducts herself on set:
“I was raised with the idea of always being very attentive to others.” De Angelis said. “I always try to put myself in a situation of humility even if this obviously does not mean not being aware of one’s own value. I think it’s the right attitude: on set we are all worth the same, if the electrician makes a mistake in putting in a socket you can do the best monologue in the world but if the light is not right you have to do it all over again.”
