Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. She was born April 28, 1974 in Madrid and named after a song by Joan Manuel Serrat. Her parents are Eduardo Cruz, a retailer, and Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser. Cruz was a dancer as a child and young teen. She completed 2º B.U.P. (2nd year of secondary school), but dropped school at the age of 15 after she beat more than 300 other girls at a talent agency audition. She received nine years of classic ballet training at the Conservatorio Nacional in Madrid, four years of dance performance with several dance courses at the Cristina Rota School in New York, and three years of Spanish Ballet with ÃÂngela Garrido. She also had Jazz Dance courses with Raúl Caballero. She first achieved fame when she appeared in the video clip La fuerza del destino for the Spanish synth-pop group Mecano. She later started a relationship with Nacho Cano, a member of the group, which lasted for several years. She was a TV presenter for the teen-oriented program La Quinta Marcha, in collaboration with Jesús Vázquez. Cruz's first major films were Jamón, Jamón and the more widely known (in the US) Belle Epoque, a film which won an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film. In 1997, she starred as SofÃÂa alongside Eduardo Noriega in Abre los Ojos, directed by Alejandro Amenábar. She also appeared with Matt Damon in All the Pretty Horses. In 1999, she appeared in Pedro Almodóvar's Todo sobre mi madre which won an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film. In early 2001, she appeared in the film Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise, which sparked a three-year relationship with the actor. Vanilla Sky was the hollywood remake of 'Abre los Ojos', and she played the same part in both films, albeit with the accent on the name 'SofÃÂa' removed for the American film. Her younger sister Mónica Cruz closely resembles her, a similarity exploited for some Spanish TV ads. In the 2000s, Mónica left her dancing career and achieved fame on her own in the youth-oriented TV series Un Paso Adelante. In 2005, Cruz appeared on Punk'd, MTV's Version of Candid Camera. Cruz called Ashton Kutcher and told him that they have to get her Bandidas co-star Salma Hayek. So, with Ashton Kutcher's help, Cruz Punk'd Hayek for the mess that they made in the restaurant restroom.
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