Cris Morena

María Cristina De Giacomi (born 23 August 1956), professionally known as Cris Morena, is an Argentine Award-winning television producer, actress, television presenter, composer, musician, songwriter, writer, former fashion model and CEO of Cris Morena Group.

She is one of the most successful producers in the country and is the creator of Argentina's most successful youth-oriented shows such as Jugate Conmigo, Chiquititas, Rebelde Way, Floricienta, Alma Pirata, and Casi Ángeles.

In 1974, Morena and Gustavo married and, after giving birth to Romina and Tomás, Morena decided to retire so she could fully dedicate herself to her family.

After a few years, however, she returned to work when her husband was unable to find a job due to discriminating policies against Jews implemented by the Argentine dictatorship.

She soon got a job at a telenovela called Dulce Fugitiva in 1979 playing Laura Moreno.

Afterwards, she decided to adopt Laura's last name as her artistic name and became Cris Morena.

In 1980 Morena, who was already a pianist and wrote poems as a hobby, decided to start writing music.

In 1984, she was one of the stars of iconic comedy show Mesa de Noticias.

From 1990 to 1991, she also had a starring role in Amigos son los Amigos.

She was a producer at Telefe from 1991 to 2001, then created the Cris Morena Group as an independent production company, with Rebelde Way (2002) as its first production.

Morena is the mother of actress Romina Yan and of producer and director Tomás Yankelevich.

After a long break from the industry, Cris Morena announced two new projects for streaming service Max: Te quiero y me duele (2023), inspired by a song for her deceased daughter, Romina and Margarita, a spin-off of Floricienta.

Morena was born María Cristina De Giacomi in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

She is the youngest of four siblings and grew up in Palermo, Buenos Aires neighborhood with her upper-class family.

Her father was an engineer and her mother was a sociologist.

She studied at a traditional private religious school.

When she was 17, she started working as a fashion model and became the popular face for Lee Jeans in the country.

While she was modeling, she also studied social assistance in university and militated alongside Padre Carlos Mugica during the dictatorship in Argentina.

When she was 17 years old, she was selected to host the youth-oriented show Voltop.

While working on the program, she met Gustavo Yankelevich, which was part of the staff, and they fell in love.

Until 1991, she was mostly known as an actress due to her role in iconic comedy shows such as Mesa de Noticias and Amigos son los Amigos and as a songwriter, thanks to the hits she wrote for children show host Flavia Palmiero alongside Carlos Nilson.

In 1991, she made her debut as a powerful name in TV production when she created, presented and produced Jugate Conmigo.

She went on to create the biggest youth-oriented franchises in Argentina history and her shows, such as Chiquititas, Rebelde Way and Floricienta, attracted huge ratings all over the world and spawned hundreds of products, albums and live concerts.

Even though most of her shows were heavily panned by critics, most of them were huge commercial successes and had huge repercussion not only in Argentina but also in several other countries such as Brazil, Greece, Israel, Spain, Uruguay, Mexico and Chile.

Morena retired as an actress after starring in the telenovela Quereme in 1994.

In 1995, she also retired as a host and as a TV personality and became a full-time producer and songwriter.

In a talk for TEA Imagen students, she revealed she believed her successful past in acting was due to her charisma, not her acting skills since, in her opinion, she was never a particularly good actress.

In 1995, she retired as a TV personality when she ended her successful Jugate Conmigo series.

Since then, she has worked behind-the-scenes, both as a TV producer and as songwriter.

Even though she is not usually seen on the media, she is a well-known and recognizable brand in Argentina, where she is considered one of the most powerful names in television.

She is also a prolific songwriter and music is an important element in all of her shows.

Her productions have accumulated over 30 platinum certifications and, alongside Carlos Nilson (her songwriting partner until 2006), she is the most profitable songwriter ever in SADAIC's (Argentine songwriters association) history.

A huge fan of Broadway musicals, Morena is also known for musicals with million dollar budgets based on her television production which are usually presented in Teatro Gran Rex in Buenos Aires.

With the complete cast of the TV shows, those musicals break attendance records every Winter vacation (July in Argentina).

Chiquititas alone has sold 1.5 million tickets.

To this day she is one of the most successful songwriters in Argentina and the one who has made most money in copyrights and albums sales in SADAIC's history (Argentina's songwriters association) alongside her former songwriting partner Carlos Nilson (the two parted ways in 2007).

She was also responsible for the Argentine version of Spring Awakening in 2010 for which she was awarded several Premios ACE, the most prestigious theater award the country.

In 2010, after the sudden death of her daughter, Romina Yan, Morena went on a hiatus and closed her production company.

She gave her last interview at the end of the year for Clarín and has made no public appearances.

In November 2012, she made her comeback at the Grammy Latino red carpet and announced her return to television after two years, with Aliados.