Manu Ríos Spanish Actor Known for Strange Way of Life

Early life

Manuel Ríos Fernández, known professionally as Manu Ríos, was born on 17 December 1998 in Calzada de Calatrava, a small town in the province of Ciudad Real in Spain. He started performing as a child. At nine he made his television debut on the family music programme Cantando en familia after being picked in a local talent search, and in 2009 he appeared as a dancer on the talent show ¡Tú sí que vales!.

Career

Ríos worked in musical theatre before he turned to screen acting. In 2010 he joined the cast of Les Misérables at the Lope de Vega Theatre in Madrid, playing the street child Gavroche, and he later took part in the musical Don Pepito. In 2012 he became a member of the revived children's group Parchís, with which he recorded an album and toured Spain.

Music continued alongside acting. At twelve he opened a YouTube channel where he posted covers of popular songs, and in 2013 he signed a six-year contract with the producer Richy Peña. He plays guitar and piano and describes his style as alternative pop with a darker side, naming Lorde and Frank Ocean among his influences. His 2016 cover of Riptide has gathered more than 28 million streams on Spotify. He has said that a debut extended play was delayed by his acting commitments and that it is still planned.

His first screen role came in 2014, when he played Mauricio Martínez in the comedy drama series Chiringuito de Pepe. Wider recognition followed when he joined the Netflix teen drama Elite as Patrick Blanco, appearing in its fourth, fifth and sixth seasons. The character was later the subject of a spin-off, Elite Short Stories: Patrick, released in 2021. In the series La edad de la ira, adapted from a novel by Nando López, he played the lead role of Marcos, a teenager accused of killing his father.

In 2023 he appeared as a balladeer in Strange Way of Life, a short film directed by Pedro Almodóvar that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival that year. Also in 2023 he was cast in the Netflix psychological thriller Mute, which premiered on 19 May. He then joined the Netflix hospital drama Breathless, which began streaming on 30 August 2024. His feature film debut is My Dearest Señorita, which is his latest credit on record.

Away from acting, in October 2023 Ríos and the stylist Marc Forné launched Carrer, a unisex fashion label, with Ríos serving as its creative director.

Recognition

In February 2023 Ríos was nominated for Best TV Actor at the Fotogramas de Plata for his work in Elite. No award wins are recorded for him in the sources used for this profile. His Instagram account had more than nine million followers when last counted in October 2026, and his YouTube channel had about 1.7 million subscribers when last counted in May 2025.

Personal life

Ríos lives in Madrid.