Verónica Fernández Echegaray (born 16 June 1983), known professionally as Verónica Echegui, is a Spanish actress. Since making her feature film debut as the title character of the 2006 drama ''

My Name Is Juani ''My Name Is Juani'' ( es, Yo soy la Juani, links=no) is a 2006 Spanish drama film directed by Bigas Luna. Verónica Echegui stars as the title character alongside Dani Martín and Laya Martí. Plot Juani comes from a very poor background, having ...

'' she has featured in films such as ''

My Prison Yard ''My Prison Yard'' ( es, El patio de mi cárcel, links=no) is a 2008 Spanish prison drama film directed by Belén Macías. The female-dominated cast stars Candela Peña and Verónica Echegui alongside Ana Wagener, Blanca Portillo, Patricia Reyes ...

'', ''

Kathmandu Lullaby ''Kathmandu Lullaby'' ( es, Katmandú. Un espejo en el cielo, links=no; ), is a 2012 Spanish drama film directed by Icíar Bollaín. The film received four Gaudí Awards nominations (Verónica Echegui won for best lead actress) and two Goya Awards ...

'', ''

Family United ''Family United'' ( es, La gran familia española, links=no) is a 2013 Spanish comedy film directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo. The film is an Atresmedia Cine (Mercedes Gamero), Atípica Films (José Antonio Félez) and MOD Producciones (Fernan ...

'', ''

Unknown Origins ''Unknown Origins'' ( es, Orígenes secretos, links=no) is a 2020 Spanish thriller film directed by , written by David Galán Galindo and Fernando Navarro, based on Galindo's novel of the same name, and starring Javier Rey, Verónica Echegui and ...

'' and ''

My Heart Goes Boom! ''My Heart Goes Boom!'' ( es, Explota Explota) is a 2020 Spanish jukebox musical comedy film directed by Nacho Álvarez, starring Ingrid García-Jonsson and Verónica Echegui. The film is based on songs by Italian artist Raffaella Carrà. The f ...

''. In 2021, she debuted as a director with the short film ', which won the

Goya Award for Best Fictional Short Film The Goya Award for Best Fictional Short Film ( es, Premio Goya a la mejor cortometraje de ficción) is one of the Goya Awards, Spain's principal national film awards. From 1989 to 1991 there was only one award for short films under the name ''Best ...

Early life

Verónica Fernández Echegaray (her real name) was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

on 16 June 1983. Her father is a lawyer and her mother a civil servant. In a 2015 interview she said she wanted to be an actress since she was eight but her parents wanted her "to study a career. My great-auntie was dying and told me I had to do what I wanted, although I must not tell my mother". Moving to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, she trained at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...

, while working as a waitress and as a dog-walker.

Career

Echegui was discovered by Spanish director

Bigas Luna José Juan Bigas Luna (19 March 1946 – 5 April 2013) was a Spanish film director, designer and artist. His films are typically characterised by a strong emphasis on the erotic, often related to food, something for which he admitted a strong ...

, who cast her in the 2006 film ''

'', for which she was nominated

Goya Award for Best New Actress The Goya Award for Best New Actress ( es, Premio Goya a la mejor actriz revelación, links=no) is one of the Goya Awards, Spain's principal national film awards. Since its inception, the award has been given to 27 actresses. At the 9th Goya Award ...

and won multiple awards including Milan International Film Festival Award for Best ActressSusannah Butte
The ice breaker: Verónica Echegui on her role in new TV show Fortitude and living in London
The Evening standard, 30 January 2015 AndMEcast

In 2009, she made herself known to

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

audiences in the ''

Mighty Boosh The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six-episode radio series, it has since spanned a total of 20 television episodes for BBC Three which aired ...

'' film spin-off ''

Bunny and the Bull ''Bunny and the Bull'' is a 2009 British comedy film from writer-director Paul King. It stars Edward Hogg and Simon Farnaby in a surreal recreation of a road trip. King has previously worked on British television comedies ''The Mighty Boosh'' a ...

''. Starring alongside Boosh mainstays

Noel Fielding Noel Fielding (; (born 21 May 1973) is an English actor and comedian. He is best known for his work with The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongside Julian Barratt in the 2000s, and more recently as a co-presenter of ''The Great British Bake Off'' ...

Simon Farnaby Simon Farnaby (born 2 April 1973) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He is a member of the British Horrible Histories troupe in which he starred in the television series ''Horrible Histories'', ''Yonderland'' and ''Ghosts''. He has writte ...

and

Julian Barratt Julian Barratt Pettifer (born 4 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor and musician. As a comedian and comic actor, he is known for his use of surreal humour and black comedy. During the 2000s he was part of The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongs ...

, she played a foul-mouthed waitress caught up in a bizarre, hallucinogenic road trip involving a kidnapped stuffed bear, jars of urine, deranged tramps and dogs. At the

59th Berlin International Film Festival The 59th Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 February to 15 February 2009. The opening film of the festival was Tom Tykwer’s '' The International'', screened out of competition. Costa-Gavras's immigrant drama '' Eden Is West'' ser ...

, she was one of ten young European actors honoured with the

Shooting Stars Award The Shooting Stars Awards are presented annually by the pan-European network organization European Film Promotion (EFP) to emerging actors from Europe. "Shooting Stars" is an initiative of the EFP for the international promotion and networking of p ...

. In 2012,

Craig Mathieson Craig Mathieson (born 1971) is an Australian music journalist and writer. His books include, '' Hi Fi Days'' (1996), ''The Sell-In'' in (2000) and the 100 Best Australian Albums in 2010, with Toby Creswell and John O'Donnell Biography Craig ...

wrote in the Australian entertainment paper ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' "In Roberto Perez Toledo's romantic drama ''Six Points about Emma'' she plays a wilful and sexually confident blind woman, while for Manuel Martín Cuenca's sparsely atmospheric ''Half of Oscar'' she is a silent, recessive sibling circling her estranged brother, and in

Icíar Bollaín Icíar Bollaín Pérez-Mínguez (born 12 June 1967) is a Spanish filmmaker and actress. Early life and education Icíar Bollaín Pérez-Mínguez was born in Madrid on 12 June 1967. She was one of twin girls to a father who was an aeronautical ...

's ''Kathmandu Lullaby'' she displays a forthright passion as a teacher trying to help abandoned children in Nepal." In 2018, she made her American television debut appearing in the FX series ''

Trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another * Trust (bus ...

'', playing one of

J. Paul Getty Jean Paul Getty Sr. (; December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an American-born British petroleum industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942 and was the patriarch of the Getty family. A native of Minneapolis, he was the son of pi ...

's girlfriends, Luciana.

Private life

Echegui is fluent in Spanish, Italian and English. As of 2015, she was living with her then boyfriend of 4 years, Spanish actor Álex García in

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...

, London. In 2013, her photo was selected for the official poster of the 23rd Festival of the Spanish Cinema (in French '23ème festival du cinéma espagnol') in

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

, France.23ème édition du Festival du Cinéma Espagnol de Nantes
France Bleu, 27 March – 9 April 2013, retrieved 6June 2017

Filmography

Film

Television

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Echegui, Veronica 1983 births 21st-century Spanish actresses Living people Actresses from Madrid Spanish expatriates in England Spanish film actresses Spanish television actresses