Dario Fo is an Italian satirist, playwright, theater director, actor, and composer. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997 and in 2007 he was ranked Joint Seventh with Stephen Hawking in The Telegraph's list of 100 greatest living geniuses. His dramatic work employs comedic methods of the ancient Italian commedia dell'arte, a theatrical style popular with the proletarian classes. He currently owns and operates a theatre company with his wife, the leading actress Franca Rame.