[1] Maria Carmela Bonicatti was born on 8 April 1901 in Rome to a colonel and Teresa Rovere di Bergeggi.

In 1919, Bonicatti made her film debut in Ave Maria, gratia plena!, which was directed by Diana Karenne.

She took on the stage name Carmen Boni, which was suggested by Karenne, and in the following years mostly played young, naïve girls in Italian comedies and romances and quickly advanced to leading roles, often directed by Guglielmo Zorzi.

[8] She remained in Germany[9] and starred in films such as The Prisoners of Shanghai (1927), The Story of a Little Parisian (1928), Love's Masquerade (1928), Princess Olala (1928), The Adjutant of the Czar (1929), Latin Quarter (1929), and Katharina Knie (1929).

[13] Boni died on 18 November 1963 in a traffic accident; another car crashed into hers on the Place des Ternes when she was on her way to have lunch with Rigaux.