Biography for
Catalina Sandino Moreno More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

19 April 1981, Bogota, Colombia

Height

5' 6½" (1.69 m)

Spouse

David Elwell

(15 April 2006 - present)

Trivia

Took acting classes at a Bogotá (Colombia) theater before getting "discovered" by an anonymous supporter who referred her name to the casting agent for Maria Full of Grace (2004).

Studied advertising at a college in Colombia before moving to New York City around 2003.

Lives with David Elwell (2002-present).

Reads Spanish books because she misses hearing the language back home in Colombia.

She is the first Colombian to be nominated for an Academy Award

Mother is a pathologist.

Went to a British school in Bogota, Colombia.

Was in NY when she heard on TV that she was nominated for Best Actress in the 2005 Oscar for her role in Maria Full of Grace (2004).

Went to Saint George's School in Bogotá, Colombia

Was one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2005

Invited to join AMPAS in 2005.

Became interested in theater and stage at a very young age.

Became the first actress ever to be nominated to Best Actress at the Oscars for a role that is spoken entirely in Spanish.

Won Best Actress at the 2004 Cartagena Film Festival in her home country Colombia.

In the future Catalina would love to work with Pedro Almodóvar and Alejandro Amenábar.

Is a huge fan of Ang Lee and would love to work with him in the future.

Her favorite actors are Javier Bardem, Gael García Bernal , Cate Blanchett and Frances McDormand.

Very good friends with Ethan Hawke.

One of very few actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for their debut performance.

Personal Quotes

...if you do theater in Colombia you'll die from hunger. Now I'm living in New York City. It's changed my whole point of view on everything. Being independent, having a little apartment, cooking. In Colombia you live with your parents until you're twenty-five and get a job and then get married.

I was coming from Spain and I was going through customs and gave them my passport to stamp. These two guys were like: "You're the girl from 'Maria'! Can I take my picture with you?" I was like: "Yeah! Of course! But can I take a picture with you?" It was awesome. A year before, the customs were the ones stopping me and causing me a headache. So I took a picture of him with me because I know that Josh wouldn't believe me.

In Colombia, in all of the soap operas, there's a beauty queen, a model and the guy lead is from Ecuador or Peru or Venezuela, but not from Colombia. People like to see on the screen tall, skinny, beautiful models with blond or black hair who dress sexy. The way I dress and the way maybe I am, they didn't like me.

It is amazing. None of us ever expected ['Maria Full of Grace'] to be so big. It was a film that was made with all the love in the world and it is being so well received. We would have never expected it.

I think you use method when you're in trouble with a character. Not being prepared in New York for what would happen to our characters in 'Maria Full of Grace' made us imagine and discover.

I love theater. Theater is the most amazing thing ever. I want to keep learning and I think that by doing as much theater as I can, it will make me a better actress for film.

"It's the story of this girl and at the end of the movie she's a woman." - on Maria Full of Grace.

Maria had such an impact on me that I didn't want to do something so light. I wanted to do something with power. Anyone can be a beautiful girl. Any girl can be that. So I didn't do anything for three years. I was waiting for the right roles.

I feel I have a responsibility, as an actress, as a Colombian immigrant, and just as a person, to show people reality. It would be nice to be an actress who loves action movies, but I'm not that kind of actress.

It was kind of like a big thing for me to just go for it, to take my clothes off and be me. It was something that I really thought about, to do or not to do. Then I just said ... I'll do it. I'm normal, it's not a big deal. On doing nudity for the first time in The Hottest State.

I love that she was evil, I love that she had to do something evil. You know If I was going to be a vampire, I would rather be an evil vampire that does crazy stuff than a nice vampire. So yeah, she was so much fun though, she was great. (On playing Maria in Eclipse.)

I know! It's crazy. I would never even in my wildest dreams thought of being nominated for an Oscar for the first movie. I thought it was going to be on cable, not on the movies, not in the theaters...you know it's just insane.