Penelope Cruz Sanchez

Penelope Cruz Sanchez was the daughter of Eduardo Cruz (a retailer) and Encarna Sanchez (a hairdresser). She was a fervent performer as a young girl and would reenact TV commercials for family amusement. However, she decided to concentrate her energy on dancing. She continued her dance training by working with several well-known dancers after spending nine years learning classical ballet in Spain's National Conservatory. She realized her passion at the age 15 when she topped 300 girls in an audition for an agency that represented talent. She was then offered roles in Spanish television and music videos. This contract resulted in a variety of performances, which opened the way to a future on the world of big screens. Cruz made her film debut in The Greek Labyrinth (1993) (The Greek Labyrinth), then appeared briefly in the Timothy Dalton thriller Framed (1992). Her final film, Belle Epoque (1992) was an Oscar-winning production in which she played one the four sisters that were trying to win the affection of a handsome deserter army soldier. The film also earned many Goyas awards, which are 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 soon Cruz became a star 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). The luck of her life changed dramatically in 1998, when the movie-industry comedy La Nina De Tus Ojos (1998) earned her the award for Best Actress Goya. Cruz had a few more forays into English-language film, however, her first major international success was Almodovar's All About My Mother (1999) where she played an unchaste , but thoughtful nun. Cruz was very popular on both sides of the Atlantic as her film received numerous awards and praises. The American comedy Woman on Top (2001) is her next major film, follows Chefs who have incredible culinary skills as well as extremely motion sickness. While in America,