Daughter of Italy's premiere horror director Dario Argento, and his former companion actress/writer Daria Nicolodi, the beautiful Asia Argento has graced the Italian horror scene as a teenager and young woman - and is now spreading out in big Hollywood productions.

Winning a European Golden Globe for her performance in Zoo, Asia the same year went on to appear in Michele Soavi's gothic The Church. She finally starred in an Argento film in 1992's Trauma, playing an anorexic teen captured in a world of a maniacal headhunter. She gave a nice performance - as much as you can perform in an Argento film - and the viewer is treated to a topless scene that makes one wonder how insane Dario really is (now I obviously love Dario Argento's work but have to admit it's a tad bizarre that he shoots sexy topless and love scenes starring his daughter - and has her raped and abused in The Stendhal Syndrome).

In Dario's super violent The Stendhal Syndrome, Asia Argento plays Anna Manni, a policewoman who hallucinates when she views intense works of art. The film filled with intense scenes of rape and torture divided Argento fans, many who feel he's lost his magic. I believe Argento got back on track with this nasty little thriller and his daughter gives one of the better performances in Dario's catalogue of films.

In Dario Argento's dismal Phantom of the Opera, Asia plays the lead Christine, who falls for the seductive phantom (In Argento's telling the Phantom is only scarred mentally but sometimes displays the mannerisms of a rat). Asia was fine in the film but the project was a huge disappointment. This had been Dario's dream project for years and it inexplicably turned into a light - goofy mess.