Asier Etxeandía Spanish Actor Known for Pain and Glory

Early life

Asier Gómez Etxeandia was born on 27 June 1975 in Bilbao, Spain. He studied acting at a school in Biscay and left the Basque Country for Madrid at around the age of twenty to continue his training and begin working. In 1995 he took part as a contestant in the Telecinco programme Uno para todos. He has since said that the teachers he had at the start taught him as much about what to avoid in the profession as about what to do.

Career

Etxeandia's first listed screen credit is the television series Un paso adelante in 2002, where he played Beni, a student at an arts academy. He left the series out of concern about being typecast, though he later said the job opened doors and introduced him to early friends in Madrid, among them the actress Natalia Millán. She suggested him for the role of the Master of Ceremonies in the Spanish production of the musical Cabaret, which he performed from 2003 to 2005.

He built a substantial record in television as well. He appeared in Los Serrano in 2003 and Los hombres de Paco in 2005. In the series Velvet, which began in 2014, he played Raúl de la Riva, a part for which he is widely recognised. Later television credits include La fuga (2012), El final del camino (2017), La línea invisible (2020) and Sky Rojo (2021). In 2022 he was in the series Once Upon a Time... But Not Anymore.

On stage he played Dante in Infierno, a production by Tomaž Pandur based on the Divine Comedy, which opened in 2005 at the Teatro María Guerrero. His theatre work also includes A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which he played Theseus and Oberon in 2006 and 2007, and Barroco in 2007 as Valmont. He appeared in Hamlet and Medea in 2009, and later in La chunga, directed by Joan Ollé, in 2013.

His film work started with short films in the 1990s and 2000s, among them Vértices in 2004 and Unione Europea in 2007. Among his feature credits are The Near East (2006), Las 13 rosas (2007), Love Expresso (2007), Broken Embraces (2009), Lies and Fat Girls (2009) and King Conqueror (2009). Later titles include Captain Thunder (2011), Shrew's Nest (2014), Ma Ma (2015), The Bride (2015), La puerta abierta (2016), The Silent War (2019) and Pain and Glory (2019). In Teresa (2023) he plays an inquisitor. Asombrosa Elisa appeared in 2022, and his latest listed credit is the film Frontier from 2025. In all, 27 credits are on record, 18 of them films and 9 television series.

Etxeandia worked with Pedro Almodóvar on two titles, including Pain and Glory, and he shares a cast list with Penélope Cruz in three. Alejo Sauras appears with him in four, among them Lies and Fat Girls and Love Expresso. Broken Embraces had a worldwide box office of about 37.5 million US dollars.

Alongside acting, he has pursued a career as a singer. Recordings include the original soundtrack of the musical Cabaret in 2003 and a song for the 2007 film Las 13 rosas. He recorded a duet of "Sympathy for the Devil" with Pastora in 2009 and a song with the duo Fangoria in 2010. In 2018 he formed the duo Mastodonte with the Italian musician Enrico Barbaro, whose first song was "Redención", and they went on to release an album under that name.

Recognition

For Pain and Glory, Etxeandia was nominated for the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film was also nominated in 2019 for the People's Choice Award for Best European Film at the European Film Awards, and that nomination is listed against his name. Pain and Glory, Ma Ma, Lies and Fat Girls and Sky Rojo are the titles identified as his best-known work.