She was born in Madrid in 1964. A self-taught actress, at the age of 14 she was selected in an acting audition to star in the film adaptation of ‘Memoirs of Leticia Valle’, by Valladolid-born writer Rosa Chacel. At the age of 18, she made her stage debut with Antonio Gala’s ‘The Birds’ Cemetery,’ and in 1989 she played her first leading screen role in Juan Miñón’s ‘The White Dove’, which premiered at the 34th Valladolid Festival.
She is the recipient of six Goya nominations and three awards: two for Best Leading Actress in ‘The Dog in the Manger’ (Pilar Miró, 1996) and ‘Julieta’ (Pedro Almodóvar, 2016) and another for Best Supporting Actress in ‘The Next Skin’ (Isa Campo and Isaki Lacuesta, 2016). She has worked with directors such as Mario Camus, Imanol Uribe, Julio Medem, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Jaime Chávarri, Isabel Coixet, Miguel del Arco, Koldo Serra, Félix Viscarret or Mexico’s Michel Franco, among many others.
On the stage she has taken part in over ten productions, including ‘Going Down to Morocco’ (1985), ‘La Chunga’ (1987), ‘The Maids’ (2002), ‘Electra’ (2006), ‘Uncle Vanya’ (2008) and ‘A Dangerous Game’ (2011), always working under top Spanish stage directors. On the small screen, she has appeared in series like ‘Cazadores’, ‘El pantano’, ‘Querido maestro’ or ‘The Zone’.
Among her multiple awards, she has received an Ondas Award and two Silver Fotogramas, an Actors Union Award, the Film Writers Association Award, two José María Forqué awards, the Silver Biznaga at the Málaga Film Festival for Best Actress , three Sant Jordi Awards, the Teatro de Rojas Award or the Margenes Special Award, in addition to the award for Best Actress at the 55th edition of Seminci for ‘The Mosquito Net’ (Agustí Vila, 2010), and our festival’s Honorary Spike, which she received in 2017.