Jorge Perugorría

One of Cuba's greatest cultural exports, Jorge Perugorria caught worldwide attention with his first feature film, "Strawberry and Chocolate" (1993), and went onto become a fixture of Spanish-language cinema both as an actor and director. Born in Wajay, Havana in 1965, Perugorria studied civil engineering before switching his attention to the theater world where he spent the next decade treading the boards in various productions. Perugorria made an instant impression when he made the leap into cinema, delivering a captivating performance as Diego, a gay bohemian who falls in love with a straight communist, in the Oscar-nominated "Strawberry and Chocolate" (1993). Two years later, Perugorria teamed up with Tomas Gutierrez Alea once again on the director's final film, the ensemble comedy, "Guantanamera" (1995) and from then on, never left the big screen. Showcasing his versatility, Perugorria played young mayor Edipo in modern Greek tragedy "Oedipo alcalde" (1996), sadist Furio in controversial erotic melodrama "Bambola" (1996) and Spanish painter Francisco Goya in the lavish "Volaverunt" (1999), and before the turn of the century had also added interweaving drama "Clandestine Stories in Havana" (1997), immigrant tale "Things I Left in Havana" (1997), and sex farce "Amor vertical" (1997) to his resume. After playing a wealthy man convinced he's being stalked in existential drama "Turbulence" (2000), 19th Century explorer Julius Popper in historical epic "Tierra del fuego" (2000) and a Cuban exile searching for his true parentage in touching drama "Honey for Oshun" (2001), Perugorria took the director's chair for "Habana abierta" (2003), a documentary about the Cuban band of the same name. The weighty roles continued to pour in, including a German farmer who falls in love with a former slave in "Scent of Oak" (2004), a murderous senator in "Hormigas en la boca" (2005) and a human trafficker in "Una rosa de Francia" (2006), while Steven Soderbergh then utilized his talents to play real-life revolutionary Juan Vitalo Acuna in his two-part biopic "Che" (2008). Perugorria then reunited with his first co-star Vladimir Cruz to co-direct psychodrama "Afinidades" (2010) before taking full control on "Amor cronico" (2012), a part-tour diary/part fictional romance starring Cuban singer Cucu Diamantes, and black comedy "Se Vende" (2012). After landing his first recurring TV role as the titular undertaker who helps people to fake their own deaths in "Lynch" (Moviecity, 2012-), Perugorria helmed "Fatima" (2014), the story of a gay transvestite prostitute, and its 2015 sequel, played a boxer father who reconnects with his drag performer son in "Viva" (2015) and took on the role of Detective Mario Conde in the adaptation of "Vientos de cuaresma" (2016).