[2] The daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted for her successful tenure as a Lancôme model and an established career in American and European cinema.

After making her acting debut with A Matter of Time (1976), Rossellini had her breakthrough role in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) for which she received the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.

She starred in the box office hit Death Becomes Her (1992), and had further roles in Cousins (1989), Wild at Heart (1990), Fearless (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), Big Night (1996), Roger Dodger (2002), Infamous (2006), Two Lovers (2008), Enemy (2013), Joy (2015), La chimera (2023).

She received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series nomination for Chicago Hope (1997).

[7] To correct it, she had to undergo an 18-month ordeal of painful stretchings, body casts and surgery on her spine using pieces of one of her shin bones.

During her career, she has also worked with many other renowned photographers, including Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh, Norman Parkinson, Eve Arnold, Francesco Scavullo, Annie Leibovitz, Denis Piel, and Robert Mapplethorpe.

In March 1988, an exhibition dedicated to photographs of her, called Portrait of a Woman, was held at the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris.

In 2016, at the age of 63, she was rehired by Lancôme's new female CEO, Francoise Lehmann, as a global brand ambassador for the company.

Rossellini also appeared in Madonna's music video for her successful Top 5 hit song "Erotica", released in autumn 1992.

[11] Rossellini was the inaugural brand ambassador for the Italian Silversea Cruises company in 2004, and she appeared in print ads and on their website.

Barbara Muckermann, the senior vice-president of worldwide marketing and communications in 2004, said at the time of the announcement, "Isabella is the ideal personification of Silversea's exclusive standard of elegance, glamour and sophistication.

This was followed by her notable role as the tortured nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens in the David Lynch film Blue Velvet, in which she also contributed her own singing.

Other significant film roles during this period include her work in Cousins (1989), Death Becomes Her (1992), Fearless (1993), and Immortal Beloved (1994).

In 2004, she played the High Priestess Thar in the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries Legend of Earthsea, and the director Robert Lieberman stated that Rossellini "brings a very big persona to the screen.

[15] The Sundance Channel then purchased the 2006 Guy Maddin-directed short film My Dad Is 100 Years Old,[16] a tribute that Rossellini created for her father.

In the film, she played almost every role, including Federico Fellini, Alfred Hitchcock and her mother, Ingrid Bergman.

Rossellini's twin sister, Isotta Ingrid,[17] criticized the short film, calling it an "inappropriate" tribute.

[18] In 2007, Rossellini guest starred on two episodes of the television show 30 Rock, playing Alec Baldwin's character's ex-wife.

Rossellini worked with a small budget for Green Porno and she was responsible for the scripts, helped to design the creatures, directed the episodes, and is the primary actor in the series.

Seduce Me: The Spawn of Green Porno is a five-episode online series that was premiered in mid-2010 and explores the topic of animal courtship.

"[22] Mammas debuted in the United States on 12 May 2013, Mother's Day weekend there, and is a celebration of the maternal aspects of the animal world.

[29] In 2024, Rossellini received acclaim for her portrayal of Sister Agnes in the political drama, Conclave, opposite Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow.

[30] Rossellini's friend, Carole Bouquet, also a model who later became an actress, suggested that Green Porno could be transformed into a lecture format with a longer duration.

Bouquet then introduced Rossellini to the French filmmaker and screenwriter, Jean-Claude Carrière, and they created a 70-minute-long monologue that expands upon the Green Porno films.

"[21] Rossellini debuted the live version of Green Porno at the Adelaide Festival of Arts on 15 March 2014 and was warmly received by the audience.

Rossellini's "smallest circus in the world", a stage play exploring the ability of animals to think, was premiered in May 2018, at the Jerome Robbins Theater of the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

[37] She has also helped with the Central Park Conservancy,[38] and is a major benefactor of the Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society in Bellport, Long Island, where she is a part-time resident.