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. 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. Early life and career 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. 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. 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).