Penelope Cruz Biography
Penelope Cruz has been in the entertainment scene for only two decades and in that time she has managed to cement her name next to stars who have been in the industry for years before her time. Born in the Spanish capital Madrid in the town of Alcobendas on April 28 1974 as Penilope Cruz Sanchez she ventured into acting in 1992 and has since risen the ranks to be one of the wealthiest stars in Hollywood.
Hers is a story of a child who loved the dancing and the attention that came with it even before turning five, seeing this, her parents Eduardo Cruz and Encarna Sanchez enrolled her at the National Conservatory in Spain for coaching on classical and Spanish Ballet. She spent most of her childhood and part of her early teen years at the school during which she established herself as an accomplished ballet dancer. She took part in several competitions that were attended by crowds and at the end of her performances she went home with almost all of the awards.
Cruz ventured into film in her mid-teens with a role in 1992’s Spanish film ‘Jamsn, jamsn’, despite the scepticism expressed earlier by the film’s producers, Cruz played her role with a maturity that was astonishing for a sixteen year old. Crowds loved her performance and gave her much credit for the film’s success.
Cruz continued a successful run in Spanish films like ‘Mas que amor’, ‘La Celestina’, ‘Entre rojas’, ‘Todo es mentira’ and ‘Brujas’ among others.
After a series of successful Latin films the Cruz family moved to the U.S in an attempt to further their daughter’s career in the more popular American film industry, Cruz found that despite her massive experience on set she was still under-qualified for big roles in the new setup so she took up acting classes at the Cristina Rota's New York school in order to polish on her skills.
She premiered on the American box office in 1997 in the films ‘Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health’ and ‘Open Your Eyes’, the audience fell in love with the sexy Latina and producers began to ask her to be part of their films. Cruz went on to appear in ‘The Hi-Lo Country’, ‘Live Flesh’, ‘The Girl of Your Dreams’ and ‘All About My Mother’ among others in the late 90’s.
Cruz begun a series of high profile films with a 2001 appearance in ‘Vanilla Sky’ and in ‘Gothika’ as Chloe Sava in 2003, the latter film became her biggest yet at the time and she became famous in an out of the U.S box offices. She also appeared on ‘Noel’, ‘Volver’, ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’, ‘Sex and the City 2’ and in 2011 she will feature on ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ as Angelica.
Besides acting, Cruz is actively involved in fund raisings to help starving people in drought-stricken countries around the world.
She is also a model and has worked with big names like L’Oreal and Ralph Lauren.
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