
Television author, journalist and podcaster
Italian television author, journalist and television personality, at the age of 23 he moved to London where he graduated in African languages and literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. In 2003 he returned to Milan, collaborating with PeaceReporter, an information site for which he writes news on Africa. In 2005 he embarked on a career as a freelance journalist collaborating with various newspapers – including La Stampa, il Venerdì di Repubblica, Io Donna, Panorama, l’Espresso, Berliner Kurier, Vanity Fair, Die Welt and The Independent – dealing mainly with Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Since 2009 he has been a correspondent for the Italia 1 program Le Iene, making his debut with a report on the arrest of a drug trafficker. On 5 August 2014 he left Mediaset to collaborate with the broadcasts Servizio pubblico and Announo on LA7. After the experience, since September 2015 he has been collaborating with the production company Magnolia in the creation of new formats, and with the online newspaper Fanpage.it for the web series Toxicity, which presents itself as an investigation into the most widespread drugs, drug addiction and associated social distress.
From 17 July 2016, he hosted a programme on channel Nove, LUPI – Limited Access Area that presented reports by various journalists, then, from 23 November 2016 on Rai 2, the programme Mai più bullismo, in four episodes in the late evening. Since January 2017 he has co-hosted with Valentina Petrini the program Cacciatori on channel Nove, at the same time he returns among the correspondents of the program Le Iene. Since October 2017 he has been co-author with Alessia Rafanelli of Veleno, an audio-investigation in podcast episodes on the website of La Repubblica, which tells the case of the devils of the Modena lowlands, a news story that occurred between 1997 and 1998.
In 2019 he published Veleno-Una storia vera, his first book published by Einaudi. In 2021 Veleno, produced by Fremantle and directed by Hugo Berkeley, became the first Italian docuseries inspired by a podcast and a book. Since November 2021 he has been the creative director of Chora Media, the largest Italian podcast company.
In 2022 he is the narrator, on the audio streaming platform Spotify, of the documentary podcast Il dito di Dio – Voci dalla Concordia where he recounts the tragedy of the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia. Also in the same year he released another Spotify original podcast Megalopolis – Mumbai 2050, in which he compares the current Indian city with an imaginary future vision, based on real projections.
In 2024, he is the narrator and co-author with Luca Lancise of the podcast Sangue loro – Il ragazzo mandato uccidere made by Chora Media which tells the story of the attack on the British Airways agency in Rome in 1985. Also in 2024 he is co-author and narrator of E poi il silenzio- Il disastro di Rigopiano, an original podcast by Sky Italia and Sky TG24, created by Chora Media, which tells the story of the Rigopiano avalanche.
In 2025 he is co-author, together with Debora Campanella, and narrator of Il cono d’ombra – La storia di Denis Bergamini, an original podcast by Sky Italia and Sky TG24. He was a guest of the Liberevento Cultural Festival in 2025 with the book “Come nascono le storie” (Ed. Roi Edizioni 2024).
Francesco Abate presents his latest book, Gli indegni (The Unworthy), on 25 October at the Teatro delle Saline in Cagliari!
Liberevento non smette mai di stupirti! È con grande piacere che annunciamo due speciali appuntamenti del Festival!
The list of winners of the 5th edition of the 2025 International Award ‘A vuxe de Câdesédda. In memory of Bruno Rombi’
Discover the full programme on the website and start dreaming of your summer in the company of Liberevento!
