Graduated in pedagogy in Bologna, she began her theatrical activity at a very young age with teachers and kids with the group “Giochiamo veramente”. In the 70s she was a member of the Collettivo Femminista Bolognese for which she made short films in super 8.

She made her debut in the 1980s as the author and host of the live show Gran Pavese Varietà, performed at the Arci Cesare Pavese club in the historic Via del Pratello in Bologna, together with Patrizio Roversi, Stefano Bicocchi aka Vito, Olga Durano, Eraldo Turra and Luciano Manzalini (who later became the Gemelli Ruggeri). She later worked on RAI with I Mixserabili and Granpaese varieta (which she wrote together with Patrizio Roversi and Gino Castaldo). She took part in some successful programs such as Drive In and La TV delle ragazze, while in 1987 she created and hosted, together with Davide Parenti and Patrizio Roversi, the late-night program on Italia 1 Lupo solitudine, which achieved great critical success. Also in that year she took part in the children’s thriller film Operazione Pappagallo, a debut work by director Marco Di Tillo. The following year, in the same time slot, she airs in Ricci’s format, L’araba fenice, a program in which she takes part together with the entire cast of Lupo solitudine. Also in these years, she proposes her character of “tap model” making fun of her physical appearance, against the excessive power of the top models, she organizes two “Tap Model” beauty contests in which many women who share her Tap ideology take part.

She writes for Longanesi Il manuale della Tap model and records some songs, such as Tocca toccami or Sballo a Cesenatico, or the theme song of Lupo solitudine Ninna nanna yee. In 2004 she also appeared in the magazine Max as the protagonist of an ironically and provocatively sexy calendar. In 1993 she had the idea of ​​taking a non-professional video camera with her on a trip to India together with her husband Patrizio Roversi, an idea that gave birth to the program Turisti per caso, which will see them engaged in trips around the world that will be broadcast in prime time on Rai 2 and then on Rai 3. In 2004 the two created a spin-off of the program, entitled Velisti per caso and set on a sailing boat.

She took part in Fellini’s latest film La voce della Luna as Sister of the Moon. She wrote Vocabolario sessuato, le parole visto dalle donne e dagli uomini, for Feltrinelli with Sandro Toni, while for Einaudi, with Patrizio Roversi, she was the author of Quel poco che Abbiamo capito del mondo facendo i Turisti per caso. In 2008, she published her first novel, Tango inesorabile, again for Einaudi. In 2011, she published the book Misteri per caso for Rizzoli. Since 23 September 2009, she has hosted the new programme In viaggio con Darwin on Sky Uno together with Patrizio Roversi. She has made the documentary La stele di zia Rosina on Mongolia for “Il festival della Genetica”.