Penelope Cruz

Born: 28 April 1974
Where: Madrid, Spain

The former ballerina has carved out a successful career with acclaimed performances in the likes of Open Your Eyes and Volver.

The daughter of a shopkeeper and hairdresser, as a toddler she used to re-enact TV commercials at home for her family's amusement.

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 beat off the challenge from 300 girls at a talent agency audition and landed roles in Spanish TV shows.

Cruz made her big screen debut in The Greek Labyrinth in 1991 and had a brief appearance in the Timothy Dalton TV thriller Framed.

Her third film was the Oscar-winning Belle époque, in which she played one of four sisters vying for the love of a handsome army deserter.

In 1992, she starred in the comedy drama Jamon Jamon, which attraced attention on release outside Spain.

She went on to work with renowned Spanish director Pedro Amaldovar in Live Flesh in 1997 and starred in the sci-fi thriller Abre los ojos (later to be remade as the inferior Vanilla Sky).

Cruz eventually won a best actress Goya (Spanish Oscar) for the film industry comedy La Niña de tus ojos in 1998.

She donated her entire Hi-Lo Country salary to the Mother Teresa's children's sanctuary in Calcutta after spending a week there as a volunteer.

Internationally, she consolidated her reputation in Almodóvar's All About My Mother in which she played an unchaste but well-meaning nun.

Subsequent roles included the American comedy Woman on Top and she also starred alongside Johnny Depp in the drugs thriller Blow (for which she was nominated for a Razzle Award for worst actress).

She starred opposite Matt Damon (with whom she was rumoured to have had a fling) in All The Pretty Horses and the disappointing big screen adaptation of Captain Corelli's Mandolin with Nicolas Cage.

Next up was the European comedy Sin Noticias de Dio with Fanny Ardant and then raised her profile for non-cinema reasons with Vanilla Sky.

It was on the set of the Cameron Crowe-directed remake that she met Tom Cruise five months after his 10-year marriage to Nicole Kidman had collapsed.

The couple later split up in early 2004 because of stresses of their work schedule (although some observers blamed Cruise's affiliation to the Church of Scientology).

After Vanilla Sky, Cruz had a cameo in the romantic comedy Waking Up in Reno and the Bob Dylan co-scripted comedy Masked and Anonymous.

In 2003, she starred in the adequate thriller Gothika with Halle Berry and starred in the Italian/Spanish/UK co-production Non to muovero.

The 2004 desert adventure caper Sahara saw her star opposite Matthew McConaughey and William H Macy and she re-teamed with Almodovar for the acclaimed Volver.