He was born in Cuba in 1965. He trained at the Higher Institute of Art in Havana, where he graduated as an actor in 1988. Since then, he has had a strong career, both in Cuba and in several Latin American countries, combining his work in film, theater, and television. He became internationally known for the film Strawberry and Chocolate, which had a brilliant international journey culminating in an Oscar nomination in 1994. Tomás G. Alea, Steven Soderbergh, and Arturo Ripstein are among the directors he has worked with. Since the year 2000, he splits his time between Havana and Madrid, where, in addition to his work in film, which includes some 25 feature films, he continuously works in the theater, where he also directs, through his own company based in Madrid. In recent years, he started directing films and writing screenplays. So far he has directed a short, co-directed a feature, and written two shorts and three features. He has received multiple awards for his work, including that of the Latin ACE (an association that honors achievement in Latino cinema, television, radio, and theater by an organization of New York-based Hispanic journalists and correspondents) for his performance in Strawberry and Chocolate.
Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara
