Belén Rueda


María Belén Rueda García-Porrero is a Spanish actress. She is best known for her roles as Lucía in the TV series Los Serrano; as Julia in The Sea Inside, for which she won a Goya Award; and as Laura in The Orphanage, for which she received another Goya Award nomination. Most recently she played the lead role in the movie Julia's Eyes.

Personal life

Rueda was born in Madrid. Her father was a civil engineer and her mother was a ballet instructor. She is the second of three children; her siblings are named María Jesús and Alfonso. She and her family moved to San Juan, Alicante when she was a child. When Rueda was 18 years old she moved to Madrid to study architecture, but she left the university when she met Massimo, an Italian man whom she married in 1985, divorcing in 1987. In 1990 she started a 15 year relationship with producer Daniel Écija. The couple had three children together in the 1990s, married in 2003, separated in 2004 and divorced in 2006. Rueda later had a five year relationship with Roger Vincent, ending in 2014.

Career

After her first marriage ended, Rueda returned to Madrid and worked as a salesperson and a model until she became a TV presenter. After that she worked as an actress on television, including the show Los Serrano, and eventually acted in films. She won a Goya Award in 2004 for her role as Julia in The Sea Inside. She received another Goya nomination for her role in the 2007 film, The Orphanage. Rueda played the lead role of the Spanish thriller Julia's Eyes, which was produced by Guillermo Del Toro. She also starred in Oriol Paulo's thriller The Body.

Filmography

Awards and nominations