Paz Vega

Biography And Filmography:

Paz Vega was born in Seville, Spain and is well-known for her sense of humor and outstanding sex appeal. Born January 2, 1976 as Paz Campos Trigo, she would later assume her grandmother’s family name when she started acting. She originally aspired to become a sports star, but later turned to government and politics while still in school, finally settling on journalism. At age sixteen, her life changed considerably when she saw the movie "La Casa de Bernarda Alba", and ever since then wanted to be an actress and Hollywood celebrity.

Paz attended the Centro Andaluz de Teatro, a renowned acting and performance school close to Seville, and after graduation moved to Madrid, Spain to follow her dream of acting. She spent an incredible amount of time auditioning for movie and television roles, while working at a bar before being hired for four episodes on the Spanish television series “Menudo es mi Padre” (1997). She was then cast in her first feature film, “Zapping” in1999, a dramatic comedy thriller about the power of TV and its influence on people’s ordinary lives.

Returning to the small-screen, she was hired and cast on the trendy Spanish award winning situation comedy, “7 Vidas” in 1999 for 50 episodes. The show told the story of a man who wakes up after being in a coma for eighteen years only to find his world entirely changed. She was then cast in the feature film, “Nobody Knows Anybody” (1999), a romantic thriller set among the spectacular festivities of Holy Week in Seville Spain, where an aspiring novelist struggles with his job and pays his bills by composing crossword puzzles.

Vega was then hired for the lead role of Angela in the dramatic film “Mine Alone” (2001), where she portrayed a physically abused wife who takes matters into her own hands after her family and the police are unable to help. She was nominated for a Goya, Spain’s equivalent of the Oscar Award, for Best Actress. She then won worldwide attention with her role as Lucia in the romantic drama “Sex and Lucia” (2001). In this sexy and erotic movie, she played a waitress who escapes to the island paradise of her deceased boyfriends dreams, where she encounters two others with a connection to her past life and former lover. The film won the actress another Goya Award for Best New Actress, and she was also nominated for her role in “Solo Mia”—the first time ever in Spanish Goya Award history that the same actress was nominated for two different categories for two different movies. Vega was red hot and now a certified celebrity, and everybody wanted to see more of the actress.

She then returned to television series work for eighteen episodes in the Spanish comedy "Companions" (1998), about the lives and interactions of a group of young teenage students and their teachers set in a Spanish high-school. She was next cast in a small role in the movie “Talk To Her” (2002). The Oscar Award winning dramatic story about two men who share an odd friendship while they care for their girlfriends who are both in deep comas. Next, she was cast in a lead role for the comedy “The Other Side of the Bed” (2003), Spain's biggest box office hit of the year. She sang and danced her way through the story of two couples who become trapped in their search for love.

She was next hired for the title role in the romantic “Carmen” (2003), another box office smash hit in Spain, directed by Vincente Aranda, "Carmen" told the story of a journey through Spain, and the French writer Prosper Merimee (Jay Benedict) who is forced by fate to be the witness to a story of love in the boundless, mysterious nature of a woman named Carmen, who turns the character of Jose into the victim with a dangerous chain of bizarre events, chaotic loves, jealousy and bloodshed.

She finally made the move to American movies in the Adam Sandler movie “Spanglish” (2004), a romantic comedy starring Sandler and Tea Leoni, about a woman name Flor, and her daughter who emigrate from Mexico for a better life in America, where they start working for a family where the patriarch is a newly celebrated chef with an insecure wife. She had finally arrived in Hollywood and was a red hot sexy celebrity. She next starred alongside Morgan Freeman and Jonah Hill in the romantic comedy "10 Items Or Less" (2006), about an actor prepping for an upcoming role who meets a peculiar grocery clerk, and the pair hit the road to show one another their respective worlds.

She then starred with Danny Huston and Christopher Walken in the mystery thriller "Fade To Black" (2006), an independent film that tells the story of Orson Welles, who in an attempt to recover from his marriage to Rita Hayworth and restart his career, travels to Italy only to be drawn into a dangerous web of intrigue, murder and politics when an actor is murdered on his set. Now fully embracing American cinema, she starred a long string of hit films that would make her a household name in the world of Hollywood.

Her next starring role was as Michael in "The Human Contract" (2008), with Jason Clarke, Steven Brand, Ted Danson and Jada Pinkett Smith, about a successful corporate man harboring a deep, dark secret who becomes friends with a a free-spirited stranger who encourages him to ditch his stuffy lifestyle and live life in reckless abandon. Next was "The Six Wives of Henry Lefay" (2008), starring Elisha Cuthbert, Tim Allen, Jenna Elfman and Vega, in a tale about a grieving daughter who tries to arrange her father's funeral while putting up with all of his ex-wives.

She ended that year with the action drama "The Spirit" (2008), starring with Scarlett Johansson, Gabriel Macht and Eva Mendes, in a story about a rookie cop, Denny Colt (Gabriel Macht), who returns from the beyond as "The Spirit", a hero whose mission is to fight against the bad forces in Central City. Another big break and starring role followed with the thriller "Not Forgotten" (2009), set in a Texas Mexico border town where a man and his wife must face their tortured pasts in order to save their kidnapped daughter.

She wrapped her year starring next to Colin Farrell in the mystery thriller "Triage" (2009), where the girlfriend of a photojournalist (Farrell) sets out to discover why he came home from a recent assignment without his colleague and best friend.