Emily’s relationship with Marcello is set to play a key part of the plot for season five of ‘Emily in Paris.’ Get to know the actor playing him, Eugenio Franceschini.

Emily in Paris herself, Emily Cooper (Lily Collins), won’t only be saying ‘ciao, bello!’ to Rome in the upcoming fifth season of the hit Netflix series, but her new boyfriend too.

Marcello, played by Eugenio Franceschini, was first introduced to viewers in the fourth season of Emily in Paris, when Emily met him during a trip to Rome with her bestie, Mindy (Ashley Park). Staying true to form, Emily promptly made him a love interest and the pair’s frisson looks set to be a focal point of the now-confirmed fifth season of Emily in Paris.

Speaking to Netflix’s Tudum on September 16, Collins said she’s looking forward to seeing what happens between her character and new beau Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini).

‘Marcello is a whole other adventure that we want for Emily because we ultimately want Emily to be able to have a better work/life balance,’ she added. ‘We want to have Emily be able to smile without condition. We want to see her beyond her vacay mode. And he comes at that perfect time.’

While viewers might not be familiar with Franceschini just yet, that is all set to change with the release of the show’s fifth season, so why not get ahead of the curve and brush up on your trivia now? He is a 32-year-old actor who was born in Verona to two actor parents. In fact, for any Italian natives or locals you may be reading this, Franceschini’s father may well be a household name for you; Gianni Franceschini, is a well-established theatre actor, and Eugenio took after his dad, taking a number of lead roles at the family theatre company, Viva Opera Circus.

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‘I discovered my passion for acting thanks to my father, a Veronese son of farmers who, after graduating in medicine, gave up everything to be a street actor. His father never forgave him for that,’ Eugenio told Vanity Fair Italia in 2012. ‘In Bologna he met my mother, an actress, good at puppets and children’s theatre. Together they travelled the world, and I with them.’

Aged 18, Eugenio moved to enrolled at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Italy’s national film school, that famously only accepts a few applicants each year. ‘I didn’t think I’d get into the school audition, only 18 out of 800 got through,’ he said. ‘When the results came out, I was with Dad in a bed and breakfast in Bilbao: It was the first time I saw him cry.’

While he’s not big on social media, Eugenio has said that since meeting Collins has cemented a close friendship between the pair. Speaking to PEOPLE on September 10, he said the role ‘snuck up on him,’ and described his experience filming as an ‘unexpected gift’ and a ‘great joy.’

‘Everything happened very quickly,’ he said in the interview. ‘When I was selected, I was filming a TV series here in Italy, so I didn’t have time to realise what was happening. So, I threw myself into something.’

Posting on Instagram to promote the show, he even called Collins ‘special.’ A star is born!