He became a pupil and assistant of Pasquale Festa Campanile from 1972 to 1979, and also worked for Salvatore Samperi, Steno and Giorgio Capitani.
In 1979 he directed his first film, The Face with Two Left Feet, an ironic and comical parody of Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta, which had been a hit two years earlier.
[6] The spokesman of the Holy See, Federico Lombardi, and Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, who from 2003 to 2008 was secretary of the Apostolic Signatura, both promptly denied the report, saying that the director was only joking.
[8] After the expiry of his contract with Villaggio in 1996, Parenti turned to directing Christmas movies, or cinepanettoni, starring Christian De Sica and Massimo Boldi.
[10] In 2020, he directed comedy couple Christian De Sica and Massimo Boldi in In vacanza su Marte, after a 15-years hiatus.