Paz Vega

Born: January 2 1976
Where: Seville, Spain

The onetime wannabe journalist first attracted attention in Julio Medem's romantic drama Sex and Lucia.

Vega, who played the title role in the movie in 2001, landed a best actress Goya (Spanish Oscar) for her peformance.

However, it was her English language debut in James L Brook's bittersweet romance Spanglish opposite Adam Sandler that Vega really raised her profile.

After studying journalism in her hometown of Seville, she dropped out to pursue an acting career.

Moving to Madrid, she worked in bars while auditioning and began her career with two successful TV shows, Companion and Seven Lives.

Her first break in cinema came with director Pedro Olean in Beyond The Garden and she won plaudits for Mateo Gil's Nobody Knows Anybody in 1999.

After Sex and Lucia, the delivered an impassioned performance as a battered wife in Mine Alone in 2001.

The following year Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar cast her in Talk To Her and she went on to appear in The Other Side of the Bed.

In 2003, she starred in Vicente Aranda's Carmen before crossing the Atlantic to play a Mexican illegal immigrant in Spanglish.