Leonor Watling

After a knee injury made her dream of a dancing career impossible, Leonor Watling turned to acting as a creative outlet. After landing small roles on the Spanish sitcoms "Farmacia de guardia," about a single mother who runs a local pharmacy, and "Hermanos de leche," which followed the lives of two long-lost brothers who reunite after their respective divorces, Watling garnered critical acclaim for her role as Carmen in the war drama "La hora de los valientes." A few years later, she landed a breakout role as young social worker Raquel in the popular sitcom "Raquel busca su sitio." The show followed Raquel as she worked and interacted with the many eccentric characters who frequented her social services center, winning critical praise for its authentic portrayal of social work. She next appeared in the indie drama "My Life Without Me," about a terminally ill woman who withholds her diagnosis from her friends and family so she can live out her dreams, and portrayed a comatose dance student in Pedro Almodóvar's award-winning film "Talk to Her." In 2002, she won critical and commercial acclaim for her portrayal of a young woman struggling to accept her mother's late conversion to lesbianism in the romantic comedy "My Mother Likes Women"; a few years later, she reunited with director Isabel Coixet for the anthology film "Paris, Je T'aime."