Penelope Cruz Sanchez

Penelope Cruz Sanchez was the daughter of Eduardo Cruz (a retailer) and Encarna Sanchez (a hairdresser). When she was a young girl she was already an avid performer, who would reenact TV commercials for her family's amusement, but she decided to devote her energy to dancing. After studying classical ballet for nine years at the Spanish National Conservatory, she continued her education under a variety of highly acclaimed dancers. When she turned 15 she realized her real destiny when she outclassed more than 300 other girls in an audition by a talent agency. The contract she received landed her roles on Spanish TV programs as well as music videos. The contract opened the way to a promising career on the big screen. Cruz made her movie debut in The Greek Labyrinth (1993). (The Greek Labyrinth). After that she appeared in a brief scene in Framed (1992) directed by Timothy Dalton. Her final film was an Oscar-winning film, Belle Epoque (1992), in which she was one of the four sisters competing for the love of a handsome deserter from the Army. The film also garnered numerous Goyas which is the Spanish equivalent of the Academy Awards. The list of credits continued to grow by about three or four films every year, and eventually Cruz was a leading lady of 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). Her luck changed completely in 1998 when the film industry comedy La Nina De Tus Ojos (1998) earned her the award for the Best Actress Goya. Cruz has made a few other ventures into film in the English language, however, her first major international success was Almodovar's All About My Mother (1999) where she played an unassuming but thoughtful nun. Cruz was in hot demand in both the Atlantic and the west coast as the film garnered numerous awards and accolades. The next major film she worked on was Woman on Top (2000), an American comedy about a cook who has a dazzling culinary talent as well as a severe case motion sickness. When she was living in the US,