Born in Rome, the son of the Nobel Prize winner Luigi, Pirandello enrolled in the Faculty of Letters at the Sapienza University, but left his studies in 1915 to enlist as a volunteer in the World War I.

[1][2] In 1923 he made his debut as a dramatist with the one-act play I bambini, followed from his best-known drama, the autobiographical La casa a due piani ("The two-storey house"), first staged at the Teatro Argentina by Dario Niccodemi's theatre company.

[2] In 1933 Pirandello wrote the short story Giuoca, Pietro!, later credited to his father and used as basis for the film Steel.

[1] In 1935 he released his debut novel Il muro di casa ("The wall of the house"), which was awarded the Viareggio Prize.

[1] After World War II Pirandello slowed his activities, with the failure of the Ardeatine massacre-inspired tragedy Sacrilegio massimo ("Maximum sacrilege"), staged in 1953 by Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, leaving him profoundly disappointed and deluded.