Film and television Ballerini's first professional role on screen was as an autistic teenager on
Law & Order (1995). Following that he had small roles in
I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) and
The Pallbearer (1996), opposite
David Schwimmer. In 1997 he starred in the
John Leguizamo comedy
The Pest (1997) before appearing in
Whit Stillman's
The Last Days of Disco (1998) and
Amos Kollek's
Sue (1998), then again in starring roles in
Martin Davidson's
Looking for an Echo (2000) and the action blockbuster
Romeo Must Die (2000). That same year Ballerini was cast as the "star chef" in
Bob Giraldi's
Dinner Rush (2001) opposite
Danny Aiello. The film grossed only $638,227 but received largely positive reviews. Following the success of
Dinner Rush Ballerini wrote, directed, produced and starred in "Good Night Valentino," a short film about 1920s film icon
Rudolph Valentino. The film premiered at the 2003
Sundance Film Festival and was entered into the permanent archive at the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. The film was also presented at the
National Museum of Cinema in Turin, Italy in 2009 as part of a Valentino retrospective. Emily Leider, in her biography of Valentino titled
Dark Lover (2003), wrote that Ballerini "infuses his [Valentino] with exactly the right mix of pride, elegance, grace and anguish... on screen, Ballerini's resemblance to Valentino is uncanny." Ballerini was also cast as another famous 1920s Italian, the anarchist and labor leader
Carlo Tresca, in
No God, No Master (2011). In 2006 Ballerini was cast as junkie
Corky Caporale, friend of
Christopher Moltisanti in
The Sopranos. He appeared in four episodes. This led to an eight-episode appearance as Ignacious D'Alessio in
Boardwalk Empire in 2010. Ballerini was later offered a contract role in
Quarry (2016) opposite
Logan Marshall-Green and
Peter Mullan. "Quarry" was cancelled after its first season. Other film credits include
Life is Hot in Cracktown (2009), opposite
Illeana Douglas,
Michael Almereyda's
Experimenter (2015), opposite
Peter Sarsgaard and
Winona Ryder and
First We Take Brooklyn (2018) opposite
Harvey Keitel. TV credits include roles on
24 (2002),
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008), the
BBC's
Ripper Street (2013),
Elementary (2015-2016) and
Neon Joe (2017).
Audiobooks Ballerini is a frequent and award-winning audiobook narrator. In 2007 he recorded his first book,
Machiavelli's
The Prince, as a favor for a friend who was starting a new studio. Ballerini considers
Beautiful Ruins (2012) to be a career changing moment; prior to this he had only recorded a few books, and its success catapulted his audiobook career.
Beautiful Ruins won the Audio Publishers Association award for best audiobook of the year on the solo male narrator category. He received Earphones Awards from
AudioFile magazine for his recordings of
Stephen Greenblatt's
National Book Award-winning
The Swerve,
Paul Farmer's
Haiti: After the Earthquake (with
Meryl Streep and Eric Conger), and
Kristopher Jansma's
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards. In a feature profile,
The New York Times Magazine called him "The Voice of God", in part because of his narration of the Hebrew Bible. Other major titles include
War and Peace,
The Metamorphosis. His 135-hour recording of
Karl Ove Knausgaards six-volume autobiographical opus,
My Struggle, which he considers his most ambitious, took him 200 hours over the course of five years to finish. His short form narration work includes episodes of "Sunday Reads" for
The New York Times The Daily Podcast, stories for the "
Modern Love" podcast.
Theater At age 10, Ballerini made his first professional appearance on stage at
Theater for the New City, New York, in
Mario Prosperi's "Uncle Mario." He subsequently joined the Italian
Commedia dell'arte troupe "I giullari di piazza" for several performances. Stage credits as an adult include "Crossroads" at
The Henry Street Settlement (1994), several pieces in "The
Eugene O'Neill Project" (1995-1996) at
The Actors Studio and The Eugene O'Neill Center,
Stefanie Zadravec's "Honey Brown Eyes" (2010) on
Theater Row, and
John Jesurun's "Chang in a Void Moon" (1997-2015) at
The Kitchen and other venues. ==Personal life==