Kealani Felicia Petito is an Italian-American director, filmmaker, actress, and writer currently based in Rome, Italy. She also works out of NYC. Her middle name Felicia, comes from the renowned author Felice Leonardo “Leo” Buscaglia.

She is from a little bit of everywhere. Born in Hawaii, to a Spanish-American mother & an Italian father, her first few years of life were spent in the German part of Switzerland, and then moving all over the U.S.A. with her mom throughout her girlhood.

She’s in Italia currently; She worked as an au pair for the past year in Liguria, along the northern coast of Italy. Now, she is working as a prep cook in W Rome’s Giano Restaurant (led by Michelin-starred chef Ciccio Sultano), sta imparando l’italiano, & writing many things—including her first feature film! She also sings & helps host a weekly live music open mic jam at an Irish pub with her friends @thesessionroma :)

She studied documentary filmmaking at the London Film Academy and is a proud alumnus of both New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude, earning a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Theatre with a minor in Media & Entertainment Producing as a University Scholarship recipient, and the British American Drama Academy Midsummer In Oxford program (run in association with the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University).