Mario Casas Spanish Actor Known for The Invisible Guest

Early life

Mario Casas Sierra was born on 12 June 1986 in A Coruña, Spain. His parents were very young when he arrived, and his father worked as a cabinetmaker. The family relocated to Barcelona when he was four. As a child he took part in advertising work, including spots for Cola Cao, Scalextric and Telepizza. In his late teens the family moved again, this time to Madrid, where he took odd jobs while studying acting at the Cristina Rota school.

Career

Casas began working on television in 2005, with guest parts in series such as Obsesión, Motivos personales and Mujeres, followed by a place in the cast of the teen drama SMS: Sin Miedo a Soñar. His first feature was Summer Rain in 2006, directed by Antonio Banderas. A wider audience came to know him through the Antena 3 series Los hombres de Paco, in which he played Aitor Carrasco between 2007 and 2010.

Two films released in 2009, Brain Drain and Sex, Party and Lies, both topped the Spanish box office in their opening weekends. In 2010 he led Neon Flesh, directed by Paco Cabezas, and appeared in Jaume Balagueró's horror film Miedo. Later that year came Three Steps Above Heaven, in which he played the rebellious Hache opposite María Valverde. It became the highest-earning Spanish film of its year and established him as a leading young star in the country. A sequel, Tengo ganas de ti (I Want You), reunited him with Valverde and Clara Lago in 2012. He also played a lead in the Antena 3 series El Barco, which ran from 2011 to 2013.

His film work in the following years was steady. He starred in Unit 7 and Witching & Bitching, directed by Álex de la Iglesia, and later returned to de la Iglesia for My Big Night. Palm Trees in the Snow brought him back together with Fernando González Molina, who had also directed the Three Steps Above Heaven films. English-language work included The 33, a drama about the 2010 Chilean mining accident, shot in Colombia and Chile with Antonio Banderas and Juliette Binoche, and the film Eden.

In 2016 he starred in Oriol Paulo's thriller The Invisible Guest. Reviews were mixed, but the film did well commercially, earning about US$3.9 million in Spain and a far larger sum in China. He later played Francisco Boix, the Spanish photographer imprisoned at the Mauthausen camp during the Second World War, in The Photographer of Mauthausen, and lost around twelve kilograms for the part. Other titles from this stretch include The Bar, The Skin of the Wolf, Bye, The Occupant and The Paramedic.

Casas moved behind the camera with Caged Wings (released in 2023, also known as My Loneliness Has Wings), which he directed and co-wrote with Déborah François. His brother Óscar appears in it. In April 2026 he began filming a second directorial project, A puño descubierto, again with his brother in the cast. The story is set in the world of mixed martial arts and deals with how two brothers relate to violence.

By 2026 his credits ran to 34 screen titles, and his most recent listed work is Agent Zeta.

Recognition

Casas won the Goya Award for Best Actor for his leading role in Cross the Line (2020). He received the Gaudí Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role twice, in 2021 for Cross the Line and in 2026 for Away. His performance in Away, a film by his acting coach Gerard Oms in which he plays a man making a life in Utrecht, also brought him another Goya nomination. He has additionally received three Feroz Awards.

Personal life

Casas is the older brother of the actor Óscar Casas, who has at times played younger versions of Mario's characters on screen. Óscar is in the cast of both films Mario has directed. He is listed at 180 centimetres in height and works as both an actor and a model.