Àlex Casademunt Spanish Actor (1981–2021)

Early life

Àlex Casademunt was born on 30 June 1981 in Vilassar de Mar, near Barcelona, and died on 2 March 2021. Before working in entertainment he was employed as an appliance technician. In 2001 he saw an advert for a casting call for a new television singing contest, Operación Triunfo, and decided to try out.

Career

Casademunt was accepted into the programme, was eliminated at one stage, returned, and finished in tenth place. After the contest he joined other former contestants, Geno Machado, Javián and Mireia Montávez, in the group Fórmula Abierta. Their album Aún hay más came out on 7 June 2002, and its song "Te quiero más" became the group's biggest hit. Also in 2002 his fellow contestant David Bustamante invited him to record "Dos hombres y un destino" together, a duet that did well. He also took part in the film OT: la película that year.

He started a solo career in 2003 with the album Inquietudes de ella, released on 16 June. It contained fourteen songs, five of which he wrote, and his brother Joan helped with some of the composition. The first single was "Jugándome la vida entera". Between 2003 and 2004 he presented the children's programme Los Lunnis on TVE, and in 2004 he appeared in the Antena 3 series La sopa boba and in the musical Peter Pan. In 2005 he was a guest on Crónicas marcianas, took part as a contestant in ¡Mira quién baila!, and presented María Isabel concerts.

Television work filled much of the following years. In 2006 he hosted Fan Factory on UrbeTv, contributed to Hoy por ti on Telemadrid, presented the karaoke contest Cantamania on TV3, and hosted the chat show attached to the fifth edition of Operación Triunfo. For TV3 he also played Marley in Mar de fons. In 2007 he worked on Telecinco's El programa de Ana Rosa as a commentator on television programmes.

In 2008 he joined the Canal Sur series Arrayán as Don Pablo, the credit for which he is best known on screen. He had the lead in the 2009 short film Ya te vale, directed by Martín Crespo. In September 2010 he returned to musical theatre in Madrid, playing Sky in Mamma Mia!

From 2011 he co-hosted the show Noche Sensacional on 13 TV with Alejandra Andreu. In 2013 he returned to music with his brother in the duo Casademunts, and the same year he appeared on the Cuatro programme Expedition Impossible and took part in Antena 3's Tu cara me suena. He and his brother released the single "Sé" that spring. In 2014 he presented "Me haces sentir", a single made with the singer and producer Papa Joe and released by Warner Music and Doble Music Records, and he appeared on stage in the plays Cosas de trios and El otro lado de la cama. In 2015 he collaborated on the programme Trencadís on 8tv with Sandra Barneda, and in 2016 he contributed to Hora punta on TVE and went back on stage with Fórmula Abierta. On 31 October 2016 he took part in the reunion concert of the first Operación Triunfo class at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, which was broadcast on television and drew up to 4.7 million viewers.

Personal life

Casademunt's brother Joan was a frequent musical partner. He died on 2 March 2021.