Born in Rome, while being a student of philosophy, in the early 1990s Mastandrea enjoyed some success thanks to the semi-regular participation to the Canale 5 late night talk show Maurizio Costanzo Show [REF].
After some occasional participations to stage plays and films, he had his breakout with the role of Tarcisio in the 1995 crime film Palermo - Milan One Way by Claudio Fragasso.