Early life, education and theater
Francesca Cavallo grew up in Lizzano, a small Southern Italian town in the Apulia Region. Her mother, Rosa Mandurino is a housewife and a community organizer; her father, Domenico Cavallo, a FIAT car dealer.
When Cavallo turned 18, she moved to Milan. In 2005, she got her BA at Università Statale di Milano. Instead of attending graduate school, she decided to continue her education, obtaining a diploma as a theatre director at the 'Academy of Dramatic Art Paolo Grassi' in Milan. [2]
Between 2005 and 2011, Cavallo founded and led the theatre collective Kilodrammi, where she wrote and directed several productions. Among these was Somari, which won the 2011 Premio Infogiovani at the International Theatre Festival in Lugano (Switzerland) and was also nominated for the 2010 Premio Scenario Infanzia—one of Italy's most prestigious awards in Theatre for Young Audiences. [3]
In 2010, Cavallo founded Sferracavalli, an award-winning festival focused on bringing contemporary theatre companies from countries with significant immigrant representation in Puglia to Southern Italy. [4]
Publishing
In 2011, Cavallo and her then-partner, Elena Favilli, [5] co-found Timbuktu Magazine, widely recognized as the first iPad magazine for children. [6]
In 2012, Cavallo and Favilli move to California and found Timbuktu Labs, where Cavallo serves as co-founder and Chief Creative Officer until 2019. Under Cavallo's creative direction, Timbuktu Labs creates Timbuktu Magazine, several other educational apps for children, and the world-renowned Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls book series and podcast, which becomes a Kickstarter sensation [7] in 2016, is translated into 49 languages, winning several international awards. [8]
In 2018, Cavallo wins the Publishers Weekly StarWatch Award. [9]
In 2019, Cavallo is selected for the European Young Leaders program by the think tank Friends of Europe. [10] The same year, Cavallo parts ways with Timbuktu Labs (now called Rebel Girls) and founds an independent media project designed to radically increase diversity in children's media called Undercats. [11] Undercats' first project is the Christmas' novel starring a lesbian, biracial family: Elves on the Fifth Floor, published in Italian by Feltrinelli, in German by Mentor Verlag, in Spanish, Catalan and Swedish by Bonnier.
In 2020, during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Cavallo publishes and releases for free the children's story Doctor Li and the Crown-Wearing Virus, an illustrated book about the story of Doctor Li Wenliang, praised by the LA review of Books and by Book Riot for its role in combating anti-Asian racism. [12] Doctor Li and the Crown-Wearing Virus is translated by volunteers into 38 languages and is read by children all over the world. [13] [14] [15]
In 2021, Cavallo moves back to Italy and launches the Paralympians book series on Kickstarter, a series of four picture books about the lives of Paralympic champions Tatyana McFadden, Jean-Baptiste Alaize, Beatrice Vio, and Zahra Nemati. The series is published in English, Italian, and Spanish. [16]
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