Penelope Cruz Sanchez

Penelope Cruz Sanchez was the daughter of Eduardo Cruz (a retailer) and Encarna Sanchez (a hairdresser). When she was a baby she was already a fervent performer, performing commercials on television for her family's amusement, but she decided to concentrate her efforts on dance. She continued to train alongside a group of highly respected dancers, after having spent the last nine years learning ballet in Spain's National Conservatory. She realized her passion at age 15, when she topped 300 girls in an audition for a talent agency. The resultant contract secured her roles in a variety of Spanish television shows as well as music videos. This in turn opened the door to a future career on the screen. Cruz made her debut film in 1993's The Greek Labyrinth (The Greek Labyrinth). After that, she briefly was in Framed (1992) which was a Timothy Dalton thriller. The Oscar-winning Belle Epoque (1992) was her third film. In the film she played one of four sisters that were trying to win the love of a handsome deserter from the Army. The film also won numerous Goyas in Spain that is the Spanish equivalent of the Academy Awards. The list of credits continued to grow by the number of films she acted in each year, and eventually Cruz was the leading lady 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). In 1998, her fortunes changed when she was awarded the Best Actress Goya for the industry-related movie comedy La Nina De Tus Ojos (1998). After several more attempts at film in the English language her first international success was the film of Almodovar All About My Mother (1999) in which she played a unchaste, but well-meaning nun. Cruz became in high demand across both sides of the Atlantic due to her film winning many awards and praises. The next major film she worked on was Woman on Top (2000) the American comedy about a cook with bewitching culinary skills and a severe case of motion sickness. While she was in America,