Penelope Cruz Sanchez

Penélope Cruz Sánchez (born April 28, 1974, in Madrid), better known as Penélope Cruz, is a Golden Globe- and Academy Award-nominated Spanish actress. Originally a dancer, she soon moved into Spanish television, and since then she has appeared in a string of films in Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese.

Cruz was born in San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid, Spain. Her parents are Eduardo Cruz, a retailer, and Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser. As a toddler, she was already a compulsive performer, re-enacting TV commercials for her family's amusement, but she decided to focus her energies on dance. After studying classical ballet for nine years at Spain's National Conservatory, she continued her training under a series of prominent dancers. At 15, however, she followed another calling after she bested more than 300 other girls at a talent agency audition. She received three years of Spanish Ballet training with Ángela Garrido. She also had jazz dance training with Raúl Caballero and she studied at Cristina Rota (mother of Juan Diego Botto) school in Madrid. She speaks Spanish, English, French, and Italian fluently.

Cruz first achieved fame when she appeared in the video clip La fuerza del destino for the Spanish synthpop group Mecano. She later started a relationship with Nacho Cano, a member of the group.

She was a TV presenter for the teen-oriented program La Quinta Marcha. She also had early exposure in Série Rose, a French erotic TV serial in which she played the role of a blind prostitute. She also directed Nacho Cano's video of "El waltz de los locos", in 1994.

Cruz's first major films were Jamón, jamón and Belle Epoque, a film which won an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film.

In 1997, she starred as Sofía Pangia, alongside Eduardo Noriega in Abre los ojos, directed by Alejandro Amenábar, and in 2000 she appeared with Matt Damon in All the Pretty Horses. In 1999, she appeared in Pedro Almodóvar's Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother), which won an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film.

In early 2001, she appeared in the film Vanilla Sky, the Hollywood remake of Abre los ojos. She played the same role in both films.

Cruz co-starred with her best friend, Salma Hayek in the 2006 film, Bandidas.

In 2006, Cruz received highly favourable reviews for her performance in Pedro Almodóvar's Volver. She won a Best Actress ensemble award at the Cannes Film Festival and has been nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA Award. She is the first Spanish Actress to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.

In May, 2007, it was announced that Penelope and her sister Monica would be designing a 25-piece collection for the Barcelona-based fashion chain, Mango.

On 7 July 2007 Cruz presented at Live Earth.

Cruz has a younger brother, Eduardo, a singer, and a younger sister Mónica, who closely resembles her: a similarity exploited for some Spanish TV ads. In the 2000s, Mónica left her dancing career and achieved note on her own in the youth-oriented TV series Un Paso Adelante.

Cruz claims to be a vegetarian since 2000, though this fact is disputed. She speaks four languages: Spanish, Italian, French and English. Cruz has also donated a considerable amount of money and time to charity. In 1997 she volunteered in Uganda for two months.

After appearing in 2001 in the film Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise, they had a three-year relationship. They split up in January 2004.

After filming Sahara in February 2005, she started dating actor Matthew McConaughey. In May 2006, they released a joint statement to People, saying that they "have decided to take time off as a couple. Later that year they announced that they were "no longer intimate and separating was the best thing to do at this time."

Cruz had a short-term relationship with actor Orlando Bloom in 2006.

Apart from being a close personal friend of the actress, Salma Hayek, Cruz is also a good friend of the Colombian singer Shakira.

In April 2007 Cruz, who is now single, stated that she would like to have children one day and she feels the need to adopt. "Of course I want to have kids," Cruz, 32, tells the Spanish edition of Marie Claire in its April issue. "I want to have my own kids, but also adopt. For a while I've had the feeling that my life won't be complete if I don't adopt."

--wikipedia