Penelope Cruz Sanchez

Penelope Cruz Sanchez was born in Madrid to Eduardo Cruz, a retailer and Encarna Sanchez, hairdresser. When she was a child, she was already a fervent performer, who would reenact TV commercials for her family's amusement, but she ultimately decided to concentrate on dance. She continued to study alongside a group of highly respected dancers following her the last nine years learning ballet at Spain's National Conservatory. She realized what she wanted to do at age 15 when she smashed more than 300 other girls in an audition held by an agency for talent. The agency offered her roles on Spanish music videos and TV. The contract led to many more roles, and opened the door to a career in the big screen. Cruz made her debut film in 1993's The Greek Labyrinth (The Greek Labyrinth). She then briefly made an appearance in Framed (1992) which was a Timothy Dalton thriller. Her next film, Belle Epoque (1992) was an Oscar-winning production where she played one of the four sisters competing to win the love of a handsome deserter army soldier. The film also garnered several Goyas awards, which are the Spanish equivalent to the Academy Awards. Cruz continued adding films to her list of credits, growing by three or four every year. Soon Cruz became the most prominent actress in Spanish cinema. Live Flesh (1997) (Live Flesh) offered her the chance to work with renowned Spanish director Pedro Almodovar (who would later be her ticket to international fame), and the same year she was the lead actress in the thriller/drama/mystery/sci-fi film Open Your Eyes (1997), a huge hit in Spain that earned eight Goyas (though none for Cruz). It was a turning point for her in 1998, when the film-industry comedy La Nina De Tus Ojos (1998) brought her a award for the Best Actress Goya. Cruz has made a few other attempts at English-language films, but her first big international success was Almodovar's All About My Mother (1999) in which she played an unchaste but thoughtful nun. When the film was lavishly adorned with accolades and awards Cruz quickly found herself sought-after on both sides of the Atlantic. The American comedy Woman on Top (2001) is her next big project, is about Chefs who have remarkable culinary talents and extreme motion sickness. In the US,