Violante Placido made her film debut alongside her actor-director father Michele Placido in the 1993 Italian crime-drama film ‘Quattro bravi ragazzi’ (‘Four Fine Boys’). Her next film roles came in 1996 when she played a supporting role in the French-Italian crime film ‘Vite strozzate’ (‘Strangled Lives’) and starred as the female lead in the Italian teen drama film ‘Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo’ (‘Jack Frusciante Left the Band’), based on Enrico Brizzi's bestseller novel of the same name, which became very successful in Italy. She portrayed the protagonist Sandra in the 1997 comedy film ‘Farfalle’. She went on to star in the English-language Italian thriller film ‘A Deadly Compromise’ (2000) and briefly featured on the Italian television series ‘Casa famiglia’ (2001).
Violante Placido’s first major role was in Sergio Rubini's 2002 Italian fantasy-comedy film ‘L'anima gemella’ (‘Soul Mate’), which earned her several awards and nominations including the ‘Best Actress’ award at the Silver Ribbon. The same year, she appeared in the Italian-American romantic-comedy ‘Ciao America’, shared screen space with several international stars in the French-Italian-American crime drama ‘Ginostra’, and featured in the French drama film ‘Les amants de Mogador’. She continued to act in the Italian comedy-drama ‘Ora o mai più’ (‘Now or Never’), crime drama ‘Gli indesiderabili’ (‘The Undesirables’) and the miniseries ‘Sospetti 2’ in 2003. Next year, she was directed by her father in the controversial drama film ‘Ovunque sei’ (‘Another Life’), and appeared in the comedy-drama film ‘Che ne sarà di noi’ and the English-language German drama film ‘Ruins’. In the following years, she played lead roles in the Italian comedy films ‘Il giorno + bello’ (‘Any Reason Not to Marry?’, 2006), ‘La cena per farli conoscere’ (‘A Dinner for Them to Meet’, 2007), and ‘Lezioni di cioccolato’ (‘Lessons in Chocolate’, 2007), apart from acting in the crime drama ‘Raul - Diritto di uccidere’ (2005) and the British political thriller ‘Fade to Black’ (2006). Her television appearances during this period were in the French-Italian miniseries ‘A Cursed Monarchy’ (‘Les rois maudits’, 2005) and ‘War and Peace’ (2007), the Italian drama series ‘Donne assassine’ (2008), as well as telefilms like the Polish-Italian biographical drama ‘Karol: A Man Who Became Pope’ (‘Karol, un uomo diventato Papa’, 2005), the French-Italian adventure drama ‘The Mona Lisa Mystery’ (‘L'uomo che rubò la Gioconda’, 2006), and the Italian drama ‘Una madre’ (2008).
In 2009, Violante Placido was cast in the role of Italian adult actress Moana Pozzi in the biographical miniseries ‘Moana’ and played the Blue Fairy in British-Italian miniseries ‘Pinocchio’. That year, she had a small role in the Indian Bollywood black-comedy ‘Barah Aana’ and played a supporting role in the Italian comedy film ‘Sleepless’, apart from lending voice to the short animated film ‘La luna nel deserto’. She made her Hollywood debut in a lead role opposite George Clooney in Anton Corbijn's action thriller ‘The American’ in 2010, followed by a major role in another Hollywood movie, the Nicolas Cage-starrer superhero film ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance’, the next year. In 2012, she again collaborated with her father in his French-Belgian-Italian crime thriller ‘The Lookout’ (‘Le guetteur’) and provided commentary for the French-Italian drama film ‘And They Call It Summer’ (‘E la chiamano estate’).
Following an appearance in the Italian short film ‘We Will Save the Show’ (2013), Violante Placido returned to television as a main cast on the second series of the English-language French-Canadian action-thriller series ‘Transporter: The Series’ (2014), a spin-off from the ‘Transporter’ film series, and the Italian drama miniseries ‘Questo è il mio paese’ (2015). In 2016, she starred in the Italian-Swiss-French drama film ‘7 Minutes’ (‘7 minuti’), directed and co-written by her father Michele Placido. She subsequently appeared in several Italian comedy films like ‘Alice non lo sa’ (2017), ‘Restiamo amici’ (2018), and ‘Modalità aereo’ (2019), and also acted in the short films ‘Stella’ (2016), ‘Sweetheart’ (2017), ‘Hand in the Cap’ (2019) and ‘Revenge Room’ (2020). Her television appearances during this period included the documentary miniseries ‘Meraviglie: La penisola dei tesori’ (2018-20) and the telefilm ‘Enrico Piaggio: Vespa’ (2019). She recently played the female lead in the Italian drama series ‘Fino all'ultimo battito’ in 2021 and appeared in the comedy films ‘Femminile Singolare’, ‘Il giorno più bello’ and ‘Improvvisamente Natale’ in 2022. She will next be seen in a lead role in the upcoming English-language Italian fantasy comedy film ‘Evelyn in the Cloud’.
