Gael García Bernal first came to the attention of world audiences for his role in
Alejandro González Iñárritu's acclaimed
Amores Perros, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. Bernal also won a Silver Ariel Award (Mexico's equivalent of the Oscar) and a Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, both as Best Actor. Bernal followed with Alfonso Cuáron's sexy road film,
Y Tu Mamá También, co-starring with his lifelong friend
Diego Luna. For their performances, the two actors jointly received the
Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice International Film Festival. He later starred in another film nominated for the Foreign Language Film Oscar, Carlos Carrera's
The Crime of Father Amaro. Bernal's performance earned him the Silver Goddess Award for Best Actor from the Mexican Cinema Journalists, as well as a nomination from the Chicago Film Critics Association for Most Promising Performer. In 2004, Bernal starred as the young Che Guevara in
Walter Salles'
The Motorcycle Diaries, for which Bernal earned a BAFTA nomination as Best Actor and was named
The Male Star of Tomorrow by the Motion Picture Club. Later that year, he played a transvestite (among other characters) in Pedro Almodovar's
Bad Education.
Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1978, the son of actors Patricia Bernal and Jose Angel García. He began his acting career as a child, and appeared in a number of shorts, including De Tripas, corazon, which was nominated for the Academy Award. At seventeen, he traveled to Europe and two years later he was the first Mexican to be accepted at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. In 2005, he made his London stage debut as the principal character in Federico Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding.
He most was most recently seen in The King, opposite William Hurt. On November 3 Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel, opens in which Gael stars opposite Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt.
Bernal's next project is O Pasado, for Brazilian director Hector Babenco.
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