Marco Paolini is the son of a railroad engineer from Belluno, later moved to Treviso. He started working in theatre in 1970s. His repertory belongs to the civil theatre. His performances usually consist of monologues with frequent use of the Venetian language, irony and satire. Inspired by Dario Fo, he is considered one of the most well-known Italian exponents of narrative theatre.
Until 1994 he worked with various theatre groups: Teatro degli Stracci, Studio 900 of Treviso, Tag Teatro of Mestre (Venice) and Laboratorio Teatro Settimo.
He became nationally famous in 1995 with Il racconto del Vajont (The Vajont Tale), dedicated to the disaster of the Vajont Dam in Italy and he won the Ubu Prize, , aired on Rai Due, and in 1997 the "Italian TV oscar" for the best program of the year. Since 1999, he has been producer of his own works with his company "JoleFilm" and recently he has collaborated with the Italian folk band "I Mercanti di Liquore" and its singer Lorenzo Monguzzi.