Mariana "Lali" Espósito (born 10 October 1991) is an Argentine singer, actress, dancer, and model. She began her career in 2003 in the children's telenovela Rincón de Luz. Espósito continued to build her acting and singing career with subsequent supporting roles in other telenovelas such as Floricienta and Chiquititas. However, it was her main role in the telenovela Casi ángeles that really propelled her to fame, making her a household name in Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe. From 2007 to 2012, she was a part of the popular teen pop band Teen Angels, which originated from the television series Casi Ángeles. The group was commercially successful and toured throughout Argentina and countries such as Israel, Spain, Italy, and Latin America.
In 2014, she signed a record deal with Sony Music Argentina and released her debut solo studio album, A Bailar, which features pop and EDM influences. The album was a commercial success, spawning several hit singles including "Asesina", "Mil Años Luz" and "Histeria." Her second album Soy (2016) spawned the singles "Soy", "Boomerang" and "Ego". Both albums were certified gold in Argentina. Her third album, Brava (2018) includes hit singles like "Una Na", "Tu Novia" and "100 Grados". Her fourth studio album, Libra, was released in 2020 and includes the singles "Laligera", "Como Así" and "Lo Que Tengo Yo".
Espósito's acting career has also flourished, with notable performances in telenovelas, films, and television comedies. She received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Abigail Williams in the Buenos Aires production of The Crucible and for her roles in the crime-thriller film The Accused and Netflix's action crime drama television series Sky Rojo. Throughout her career, Espósito has received numerous awards and nominations, including six Gardel Awards, five MTV Europe Music Awards, thirteen Argentina Kids' Choice Awards, one Billboard Latin Music Award, and seven MTV Millennial Awards. She has also been nominated for the Lo Nuestro Awards and the Seoul International Drama Awards. In 2015, Infobae named her one of the ten most influential women in Argentina, a testament to her impact and influence in the entertainment industry.
Life and career 1991–2003: Early life and career: Rincón de Luz Mariana Espósito was born on 10 October 1991 in Buenos Aires to Carlos Espósito, a football coach, and Maria José Riera, who road-manages her tours. She has two older siblings, Ana Laura, a makeup artist and stylist, and Patricio Espósito, a former futsal player who played in Italy. Espósito lived in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Parque Patricios during her childhood and then moved to the district of Banfield, Buenos Aires. Espósito is of Italian descent through her great-grandparents.
Espósito made her television debut at the age of 6 on the children's program Caramelito y Vos in 1998, as a contestant impersonating Uruguayan actress and singer Natalia Oreiro. After wandering into a producer Cris Morena audition by mistake in early 2002, Espósito was cast in Morena's children television series Rincón de Luz, making her acting debut as part of the children's supporting cast, portraying Malena "Coco" Cabrera. Rincón de Luz ran on Argentina's Canal 9 and later América TV from 18 February 2003 to 18 December 2003. Espósito also made her singing debut in the Rincón de Luz soundtrack album, singing a duet with Agustín Sierra. Due to Rincón de Luzs success in Israel, Espósito was part of a stage adaptation at the Yad Eliyahu Arena in Tel Aviv, which ran for two weeks in April 2004.
2004–2006: Settlement as a child actress: Floricienta and Chiquititas In 2004, Espósito was cast as Roberta in the juvenile telenovela Floricienta, also created and produced by Cris Morena, which ran for two seasons on El Trece from 15 March 2004 to 2 December 2005. Floricienta was a record-smashing success in Argentina, Latin America, Israel and Europe, and has been broadcast in over 70 countries since its original run. The series helped to establish Espósito as a child actress of the likes of former Cris Morena Group stars Agustina Cherri, Marcela Kloosterboer, Luisana Lopilato and Camila Bordonaba. Espósito was also part of the stage adaptation of Floricienta, albeit portraying different versions of her character, which ran for over 100 shows in 2004 and 2005 at Teatro Gran Rex, 10 shows at the Luna Park arena and 4 shows at the Vélez Sarfield Stadium, as well as a national tour in Argentina.
In 2006, Espósito led the children's cast in the remake of Cris Morena's highly successful children's series Chiquititas, released as Chiquititas Sin Fin, portraying Agustina Ross. Espósito also sang "Me Pasan Cosas" and "Por Una Sola Vez", two of the songs in the Chiquititas soundtrack album 24 Horas, which was one of the top ten selling albums in 2006 and participated in the stage adaptations in mid 2006 at Teatro Gran Rex.
2007–2010: Success with Casi Ángeles and Teen Angels In 2007, Espósito landed her first leading role on television, as Marianella "Mar" Rinaldi in Casi Ángeles (Almost Angels), also created by Morena and produced by Cris Morena Group. It became one of the most popular adolescent television programs in Argentina, Latin America and Israel. The series lasted from 2007 to 2010 and held high viewer ratings and earning four Martín Fierro Awards for Best Juvenile Program.
While acting in Casi Ángeles, Espósito became one of five members of successful pop band Teen Angels, signed to Sony BMG, along with Gastón Dalmau, Juan Pedro Lanzani, Nicolás Riera and María Eugenia Suárez. Teen Angels reached success in countries such as Argentina, Israel, Chile, Peru, Spain and Uruguay. Although Casi Ángeles ended in 2010, the band members announced they would continue working together, with Rochi Igarzábal replacing María Eugenia Suárez.
From 2007 to 2012, Teen Angels released six studio albums, of which five were certified platinum and one was certified gold by the Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers. They were also spokespersons for numerous brands, such as Coca-Cola. The band won a Clarín Award, a Kids' Choice Award Argentina, two Los 40 Principales Awards, and a Quiero Award, and three nominations for Carlos Gardel Awards.
Teen Angels disbanded in 2012, and held its last concert on 11 October 2012 in Córdoba. Teen Angels, el adiós, a 3D concert film about Teen Angels, was released in 2013 and marked the end of the group.
2011–2013: Cuando me sonreis, The Crucible, Solamente vos and "A Bailar" After the end of Casi Ángeles, Espósito adopted her nickname Lali, by which she had been known to her friends and family, as her stage name.
In 2011, Espósito starred on Cuando me sonreís (When you smile at me), a new television series by Tomás Yankelevich, opposite Facundo Arana, Julieta Díaz and Benjamín Rojas. The following year, Espósito portrayed Abigail Williams in the Buenos Aires production of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and made her film debut with La pelea de mi vida (The Fight of My Life), which also starred Mariano Martínez and Federico Amador.
Since January 2013, Espósito had starred in the Pol-ka series Solamente vos (Only You), along with Adrián Suar and Natalia Oreiro, as Daniela, one of its leading characters. In 2013, Espósito announced she would release her first album as a solo artist, titled A Bailar. When asked about the album's genre, she described it as mainly dance with hip hop influences. The album's lead single, "A Bailar", was released for digital download on her website on 5 August, causing the website to crash because of a spike in traffic. On 2 September, Espósito presented the music video for "A Bailar" at the prominent La Trastienda Club. "A Bailar" received 100,000 YouTube views on its release day, and the single entered the top 20 on iTunes Latin and iTunes Israel. It was also popular in music charts and radio channels in Latin America, Italy and Israel.
2014–2015: A Bailar, A los 40 and Esperanza mía Previous to the release of her debut album, Espósito released A Bailar EP, which included the tracks "A Bailar", "Asesina" and "Del Otro Lado". The music video for "Asesina", the second single, was uploaded to the singer's official YouTube account on 10 March 2014. The ten-track album A Bailar (English: Let's Dance) was released on 21 March 2014.
In support of the album, Espósito embarked on the A Bailar Tour of Argentina, with several later stops in Uruguay, Chile, Spain, Italy and Israel. The tour earned million in the first five shows at Teatro Opera Allianz and was later named the highest-grossing tour of 2015 in Argentina. Following the tour's success, more dates were added, and the tour concluded on 25 April 2016 at Menora Mivtachim Arena, Tel Aviv, after a total of 74 dates.
In May 2014 she starred in the Peruvian film "A los 40" (At 40), directed by Bruno Ascenzo. In the same year, she became the first ever Argentine artist to win a Kids' Choice Award in the United States for Best Latin Artist.
In late 2014, the singer signed an exclusive publishing contract with Sony Music Argentina and released "Mil Años Luz" as the third single from A Bailar. To celebrate her incorporation into Sony Music Argentina, Espósito released a deluxe edition of A Bailar, which included unpublished material, including a new song, a remix, several video clips, and a documentary of the tour. The album peaked at No. 3 in Uruguay and at No. 5 in Argentina, where it was certified gold a few days after its release.
In 2015, Espósito starred in the Pol-ka telenovela Esperanza mía (My lovely hope) alongside Mariano Martinez as Julia "Esperanza" Albarrazin, a young woman who settles in a convent by posing as a novice.
The A Bailar Tour, continued to 2016 across national cities like Buenos Aires, Rosario, Mar del Plata and Córdoba and included international stops in Uruguay, Italy, Spain and Israel. In 2014, the singer performed as the opening act for Ricky Martin show, held in Buenos Aires and in 2015 for Katy Perry's The Prismatic World Tour.
2016–2017: Soy, That's Not Cheating and collaborations
Espósito released her second studio album Soy on 20 May 2016, with newspaper writing that "she takes one more step with this album, she experiments, shows herself as she is, and that is always valuable". In an interview with Intrusos, the singer referred to the album's title (Soy, English: I Am) saying that "it is called Soy because I am sharing the truth about what I think and feel. It is super personal". It sold more than 20,000 copies in Argentina in just three hours, being certified gold by the Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers (CAPIF). The album debuted at No. 1 in Argentina, Uruguay and Israel, and at No. 5 and No. 6 in Italy and Spain, respectively. Its lead single, "Soy", was released on 5 May and peaked at No. 5 on the Monitor Latino Argentina Top 20 chart and at No. 15 on the Ecuador Pop Songs chart. The second single, "Boomerang", was released on 5 September 2016. As of June 2017, its music video has been viewed more than 17 million times. Soy was listed as one of the best albums of 2016 by Billboard Brasil along with Beyoncé's Lemonade, Lady Gaga's Joanne, J Balvin's Energía and others. In the same year, Espósito was featured on Abraham Mateo's remix of the song "Mueve" from the re-issue of his album Are You Ready?, on Brian Cross song "Firestarter" from his second studio album Darkness to Life and on Baby K's Spanish version of the international hit "Roma-Bangkok".
In August, Espósito starred in the romantic comedy film That's Not Cheating (Permitidos) as Camila Boecchi alongside Martín Piroyansky. The film, which was directed by Ariel Winograd, grossed US$1.9 million and has been viewed more than 370,000 times. The review aggregator website Todas Las Críticas assigned the film a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".