Colagrande was born in Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy. She studied in Italy, Switzerland and Australia, and in 1995 she moved to Rome where she began making video art and documentaries on contemporary art.

From 1997 to 2000, Colagrande joined the art project VOLUME, making a series of video portraits of seven contemporary artists: Jannis Kounellis, Alfredo Pirri, Bernhard Rüdiger, Nunzio, Raimund Kummer, Gianni Dessí, Maurizio Savini and Sol LeWitt.

Colagrande made three short films: “Carnaval” (1997), “Fetus – 4 brings death” (1999), and “n.3” (2000). In 2001, she wrote, directed and starred in her first feature film, Aprimi il Cuore (Open My Heart), which opened at the Venice Film Festival 2002, and then was selected by many international film festivals, such as the Tribeca Film Festival 2003, in competition, and Paris Cinéma 2003, where it won the award Prix de l’Avenir. Colagrande was also nominated for Best New Director at the Silver Ribbon 2003. Open my Heart was released in Italy by Lucky Red and in the US by Strand Releasing.

In 2005 Colagrande directed her second feature, Before it Had a Name, which she co-wrote and co-starred in with Willem Dafoe. The film opened at the Venice Film Festival 2005, and was then shown in San Sebastian Film Festival and various other international festivals. It was distributed worldwide by Millennium with the title Black Widow.

In 2010 she wrote and directed her third feature, A Woman, starring Willem Dafoe and Jess Weixler. It also premiered at the Venice Film Festival 2010 and then screened at many other international film festivals.

In 2012, she made The Woman Dress, the third short film of the PRADA series The Miu Miu Women’s Tales, and completed the feature-length film Bob Wilson’s Life & Death of Marina Abramovic, a documentary on the opera directed by Robert Wilson, based on Marina Abramović’s biography, starring Willem Dafoe, Antony Hegarty and Abramović herself, which was screened at MoMA in New York and at the Louvre Museum in Paris. Both films premiered at the Venice Film Festival 2012.

In 2013 the film The Abramovic Method, which continues Colagrande’s collaboration with performance artist Marina Abramović, was presented at the Venice Film Festival and is now being shown in various museums around the world.

In 2016 Colagrande wrote, directed and performed in PADRE, starring Franco Battiato, Willem Dafoe and Marina Abramović. After premiering at the Morelia International Film Festival in October 2016, the film is still showing in film festivals around the world.

As an actress, Colagrande has also performed in Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini (2014) and in Wes Anderson’s short film Castello Cavalcanti (2014). In 2017 she made her debut as a singer, writer & composer in the project THE MAGIC DOOR, created with Arthuan Rebis and Vincenzo Zitello.