Penelope Cruz

Penélope Cruz Sánchez (born April 28, 1974), better known as Penélope Cruz, is a Spanish actress. At 15, she was signed by an agent. She made her acting debut at 16 on television, and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón (1992), to critical acclaim. Her subsequent roles in the 1990s and 2000s included Open Your Eyes (1997), The Hi-Lo Country (1999), The Girl of Your Dreams (2000) and Woman on Top (2000). Cruz achieved recognition for her lead roles in Vanilla Sky and Blow. Both films were released in 2001 and were commercially successful worldwide.

In the 2000s, she has appeared in films from a wide range of genres, including the comedy Waking Up in Reno (2002), the thriller Gothika (2003), the Christmas movie Noel (2004), the action adventure Sahara (2005), the animated G-Force and the musical drama Nine. Her most notable films to date are Volver (2006), for which she earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), for which she received an Academy Award. She was the first Spanish actress in history to receive an Academy Award, and the sixth Hispanic actor overall.
Cruz has modeled for companies such as Mango, Ralph Lauren and L'Oréal. Cruz and her younger sister Mónica Cruz have designed items for Mango. She has donated both her time and money to charities. Cruz has volunteered in Uganda and India, where she spent one week working for Mother Teresa; she donated her salary from The Hi-Lo Country to help fund the late nun's mission.

Cruz, known to her friends as Pe,owns a house near her family's home in Madrid and another in Los Angeles.Although Cruz's parents are divorced, in 2008 she said she is close to both parents and to her brother as well as having a "100 percent" bond with her younger sister.She speaks Spanish, Italian, French and English. She learned Italian for Don't Move.She was a vegetarian in her youth and has spoken out about bullfights.She picked up a stray dog when filming Bandidas in Mexico and took it home to Los Angeles In 2008, she said she described tabloid newspapers as "disgusting" and said that, aside from false stories that affect her directly, "this culture of gossip affects our society on a much deeper level, on an ethical level." Cruz owns a clothing store in Madrid and designed jewelry and handbags with her younger sister for a company in Japan.Cruz had a three-year relationship with Tom Cruise after they appeared together in Vanilla Sky. It ended in January 2004. In April 2003, she filed a lawsuit against the Australian magazine New Idea for defamation over an article about her relationship with Cruise. Her lawyers claimed that "the proceedings state that the article contains a number of false and defamatory statements concerning Ms. Cruz" and she is seeking "substantial damages and is confident that legal proceedings will vindicate her reputation."After filming Sahara in February 2005, she began dating actor Matthew McConaughey. In June 2006, they told People that they "have decided to take time off as a couple" and that "due to busy work schedules and so much time apart" they decided that "separating was the best thing to do." In April 2007, Cruz, who was single, said she would like to adopt children. "Of course I want to have kids," she told the Spanish edition of Marie Claire in April 2007. "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."Cruz is friends with Pedro Almodovar, whom she has known for almost two decades and with whom she has worked on films.Vanity Fair asked them to pose for a Hollywood issue in 2010.Almodovar described her as his muse.Cruz began dating co-star Javier Bardem in 2007. They married in early July 2010 in a private ceremony at a friend's home in the Bahamas. After photos emerged of Cruz with a baby bump on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, representatives said the couple expect a child in March 2011.