WRITER – ACTOR
Chiara Montalto-Giannini was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and started writing creatively in the fifth grade. She began formally studying acting and writing while a student at Eugene Lang College of The New School, from which she holds a degree in Urban Studies and NYC history.
WRITER – ACTOR
Set in the late nineties and early aughts in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn,
A Brooklyn Love Story: Emergency Used Candles tells the story
of Chiara or “Sweetheart,” a young woman in her twenties
who lives with her elderly Italian- American
grandfather, Pop. The two become best
friends, confidantes, and a “duo”, as Pop navigates life as a
widower, and Sweetheart struggles with work, dating, and figuring
out her place in the world. How does Pop prepare his
granddaughter for life’s ups and downs, for love, and for
the inevitable? A Brooklyn Love Story: Emergency Used
Candles is a poignant and funny coming of age tale about the profound effect a grandfather and granddaughter have on each other as one’s life is ending and the other’s is just beginning, told through the lens of the New York Italian American experience.
