Victoria Abril

Born in Madrid, Victoria Abril is one of the most versatile Spanish actresses of her generation, mostly known for her collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar. She studied dance at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, before beginning a television career at fourteen in the series Uno, Dos, Tres. After a few secondary roles, Victoria Abril was chosen to play a seventeen year old boy who struggles with his identity and finds his salvation through transsexuality, in the film Cambio de Sexo by Vicente Aranda. In the following decade, she participated in dozens of films, several of them shot in France, where she currently lives. The actress first  collaborated with Pedro Almodóvar in the film Ata-me! (1989), opposite Antonio Banderas. The film was an international success and generated significant controversy for its frank eroticism. Two years later the actress would again collaborate with the director in the melodrama Sapatos Altos, a freudian ode centralized in women e in the relationship between mother and daughter, and later in the film film Kika (1993). In 1995 she returned to Spain to star in Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto by Agustín Díaz Yanes, receiving the Goya Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Gloria, an alcoholic prostitute. She also worked with the director in films Sin noticias de dios (2001) and Solo Quiero Caminar (2008). In 2005, along with her film career, she made her debut as singer, revealing a passion for Brazilian Bossa Nova. She released the album Putcheros do Brasil, which features classic songs by artists such as Vinicius de Moraes, Tom Jobim, Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque, among others.