BEGINNINGS IN ITALY
Ernesto Tomasini made his professional debut at the age of 16 in the United States, where he was studying art. Upon returning to his native Palermo, he began performing as an “exotic turn” in smoky nightclubs, quickly gaining popularity as a cabaret artiste on local television and touring across the country. His first steps into legitimate theatre came in Rome, where he performed alongside movie star Duilio Del Prete, followed by a brief but formative experience with the Dario Fò family. After years of playing leading roles in theatre, starring in his own cabaret acts, and headlining variety shows, Tomasini relocated to the UK to further his career.
THEATRE
In London, Tomasini played leading roles with experimental theatre companies (Lindsay Kemp), Off-West End shows (Blind Summit’s Mr China’s Son), touring productions (Cabaret – The Musical), the West End (Chicago – The Musical), and the National Theatre (The English Man Sits in a Caravan at St. Osyth / Singing). His solo shows (True or Falsetto? A Secret History of the Castrati), which debuted at the Edinburgh Festival, launched an international career spanning 15 countries and four languages, from Mexico to India and Russia to Greece. After six years focused exclusively on music, he returned to the stage in works written for him (Aida, Roberta Torre, 2014) or by him (Beato Chi Ci Crede, Out Off Theatre, Milan, 2017). Following a career pause for family matters, he returned in Lunaria (2023), a music-infused play co-produced by the Italian National Theatre and the Campania Teatro Festival. In 2024 he created Sicily’s first Queer Theatre company for which he wrote, directed, and produced two hugely successful plays at the Festival Teatro Bastardo in Palermo.
CABARET, PERFORMANCE ART, FASHION AND PRESENTING
Tomasini has remained a staple of the cabaret scene, performing in mainstream venues (The Regency Rooms), underground clubs (Kaos London), the fetish circuit (Torture Garden), and charity events (Franko B’s Untouchable series). Since 2024 he is a regular at London’s Crazy Coqs. His collaborations with Ron Athey and Carlos Motta have taken his performance art to museums and festivals worldwide, including Naples’ Madre (2009), Buenos Aires’ Malba (2018), Berlin Biennale (2020), and MAMBO Bogotá (2023). He has appeared at London Fashion Week for Nasir Mazhar, Pitti Uomo for Carlo Volpi, and other major fashion events. As a presenter, he has hosted Q&As (with rapper Mykki Blanco in 2019) and introduced the 70th Taormina Film Festival in 2024. In 2020, he served on the jury of the 10th Sicilia Queer Filmfest.
RADIO, CINEMA AND TV
On radio, Tomasini has sung, acted, and been interviewed on all the BBC stations, Classic FM, and national networks worldwide—most notably on Radio 3 (Spain), RAI Radio 3 (Italy), and Radio New Zealand. In film, he has appeared in features for Pathé, Universal Pictures and Lucky Red, working with directors such as Alfonso Cuarón, Pete Hewitt and Franco Maresco. The short documentary Ernesto Tomasini: One Life to Live (2018) premiered on Dangerous Minds before screening at the Sicilia Queer Filmfest, as part of a retrospective on his career. His Italian film debut came with Ciurè (2022), in which he played a major role, followed by a leading performance in the multi-award-winning Quir. A Swiss production, Quir premiered at the 2024 Taormina Film Festival and went on to screen at major festivals including Locarno, Rome, and Solothurn. Released in Swiss cinemas in May, it will reach Italian theatres in September. Ernesto plays a fun role in Maresco’s Un film fatto per Bene, in competition at the Venice Film Festival and released in Italian cinemas in September. As a voiceover artist, he has collaborated with Oscar-winning filmmakers like James Ivory, Ridley Scott, and Kevin Spacey. His TV appearances in the UK include BBC, ITV, and Sky productions. In 2013 he was at the centre of the documentary Heavenly Voices – The Legacy of Farinelli (2013), performing alongside the world’s leading countertenors. In April 2025, he appeared in the cast of Ricordando Letizia, broadcast on RAI 3, the Italian network where he has often been interviewed due to his theatrical work. In 2015, he was the face of the House of Fraser lipstick campaign, and in 2016, he starred in Symphony to a Lost Generation, the world’s first holographic opera.
MUSIC
For 18 years, Tomasini has lent his wide vocal range to a variety of musical genres, spanning from experimental and industrial to classical and opera. In 2025 he previewed Exaggerata!, a new recital, at the Atlante Theatre in Palermo and took it to The Crazy Coqs in London shortly after. In December 2024, he made his jazz debut at Palermo’s Real Teatro Santa Cecilia (the Brass Group), singing Disney classics for Franco Maresco’s Io e il jazz series, accompanied by a trio led by Maestro Sal Bonafede on piano. The success led to further appearances, including one, in January 2025, with TV personality Marco Giusti. In November 2024 he took his one-man concert (which had premiered at the Danae Festival in Milan the previous year) to London’s Crazy Coqs. In May 2024 he was singer and actor in Derek Jarman’s Blue Live by composer Simon Fisher Turner, for the Cinema Museum in Turin, Italy. In 2023 he played a major role in the Franco Zeffirelli centenary production of Donizetti‘s La fille du regiment, at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, directed by Marco Gandini, musical direction Giuliano Carella, with John Osborn, Jessica Nuccio, Madelyn Renee. In 2022 he sang Cabaret chansons from the early 20th Century, with soprano Hila Baggio, directed by Omer Meir Wellber, at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and at the Toscanini Festival in Parma and Reggio Emilia. In 2020 he was among the highlights at the end of year concert of the Massimo, also under the baton of maestro Wellber, alongside musician Manfredi Clemente, soprano Carmen Giannattasio, baritone Markus Werba, and actor Elis Danker. Other collaborations include Marc Almond, the late “father of industrial music” Peter Christopherson (founder of Coil, Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle), Current 93 (he was special guest at their first Queen Elizabeth Hall concert, alongside Anohni), electronic producer Shackleton (who wrote for him Devotional Songs, the critically acclaimed live show and album, which was among the best of 2016 for the Wire, the Quietus and many more), Julia Kent (Antony & the Johnsons), Rolo McGinty (The Woodentops), Andrew Liles (Nurse With Wound), producer Man Parrish, the Lacerba label (Ernesto appears in two of its compilation albums, alongside Myss Keta, Federico Fiumani and others), the Resonance Radio Orchestra, Spiritual Front, Adam Donen, Larsen, Othon and Jose Macabra (as Trans4Leben they opened the Drop Dead Festival 2011 in Berlin).
He has sung his repertoire in London venues like the Royal Albert Hall (main house and Elgar Room), Purcell Room, National Theatre, Roundhouse, Cadogan Hall, Tate Britain, National Portrait Gallery, and in historical theatres around the world (Sala Apolo Barcelona, Kampnagel Hamburg, Serralves Porto, etc).
He is singer/songwriter of the prog-rock band Almagest! (founded with Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo), with which he toured extensively, appearing in venues like the Volksbuehne in Berlin and festivals like the Kurt Weill Fest.
As a recording artist he sings on 18 albums, six singles, six music videos and on two soundtracks (one of a film by Bruce LaBruce). (For more details see the DISCOGRAPHY page on this site).
LECTURES AND TEACHING
Tomasini creates dynamic “performed lectures,” delivered at universities, galleries, theatres, and opera houses worldwide, covering subjects like music history and queer studies. Venues include the Angela Peralta Theatre (Mexico, 2006), the European Institute of Fashion and Design (Milan, 2023 & 2024), and Malayalam University (India, 2024). A sought-after teacher of theatre history and performance, he has taught in the UK, Spain, and Italy, and in 2016, he became the only Italian to give a masterclass at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in its 121-year history.
BOOKS
His work and performance style are discussed in six books, an academic essay and five doctoral theses. For two years (2010-2012) Ernesto was the London correspondent of the Italian magazine Musical!. He wrote the preface to the book Aida, il grande circo dell’aldilà (Glifo 2014) by Neapolitan poet Igor Esposito and contributed to I Created Me (Timeless 2017). He has written his first book and is currently looking for a publisher.
ART
He has posed for several European painters and photographers. One of his many portraits by Spanish artist Hector De Gregorio was acquired, in 2009, by “jeweller to the stars” Theo Fennell. Photographs of him appear in books by Predrag Pajdic (2012), Enrico Frignani (2014), and Magnus Arrevad (2015). In 2014, Italian photographer Alberto Alicata dedicated a reportage to Ernesto, which won an Honourable Mention at the International Photography Awards. His image and essence were featured by the National Theatre of Palermo on posters, flyers, calendars and videos promoting its 2014 season. Throughout 2018, a large “Nativity” by Alessandro Bazan, with Ernesto at its centre, was on display in the San Lorenzo Oratory in Palermo, replacing the famous Caravaggio stolen in 1969. Portraits by photographers Angelo Macaluso and Fabio Giannetto as well as artist Louise Drost Harton were exhibited in 2018 and 2019 at the Galleria Arte Moderna – where Ernesto also wrote the accompanying text – and the Praetorian Palace in Palermo and in Copenhagen. He was portrayed alongside his mother by Wolfgang Tillmans and included in Tillmans’ exhibition at the mumok (Museum of Modern Art) in Vienna in 2021/22. Tomasini is also one of the subjects of Andrea Cusumano‘s Nativity (2021) and Nero # (2022), a series of painted photographs showcased at the Nitsch Museum in Austria in 2024 and at BWA in Krakow in 2025. In 2024, he was portrayed by painter Antonio Gregorio Maria Nuccio for the opening credits of the film Quir.
AWARDS
In 2012 Tomasini was included in the theatre section of “Eccellenza Italiana” (“Italian Excellency”, with presentation by the President of the Republic of Italy), for his services to the arts. In 2013 he was awarded the prize “Sicilian in the World” and in 2016 he received the Italian correspondent of what in UK is the Key to the City, by the mayor of his home town of Palermo. He was also added to the list of notable Sicilian artists by Italian government agency Observatory of Arts and Literature (with accompanying documentary by director Salvo Cuccia) and, in 2017, he was the Official Ambassador of Pride. Among his other gongs: a best comedian prize in Italy, best female impersonator of 1999 at the London Astoria and a special mention at Edinburgh Fringe 2002.
When he is not on tour, Tomasini spends his time between the heart of Chelsea in London, where he collects Julie Andrews memorabilia, and the heart of his native Palermo, where he stores Julie Andrews memorabilia.