Ester Expósito

Her first casting in Madrid

Ester Expósito was born in Madrid on January 26, 2000. She does not come from a family of actors, but her parents enrolled her in theater classes before she could read fluently. By age sixteen, she was already looking for roles in national series while finishing her compulsory schooling in the capital.

In 2016, she landed her first small role in Vis a vis. It was a minimal, one-line appearance. Shortly after, she filmed Centro Médico and began to understand that television in Spain moved at a frantic pace that left no room for technical mistakes.

And then came the phenomenon.

The premiere of Élite in October 2018 defied every statistical forecast by production company Zeta Studios. Expósito played Carla Rosón, an aristocratic character who kept her tied to the classrooms of Las Encinas for three full seasons. She gained millions of followers on social media while filming the next installments in the Sierra de Madrid.

But the media noise did not dampen her interest in auteur cinema. In 2018, she appeared in Tu hijo, a gritty drama directed by Miguel Ángel Vivas, where she shared scenes with José Coronado. It was a fast shoot in Seville that let her step away from the teen tone of Netflix for a few weeks.

Breaking away from the school uniform

In 2020, she shot the miniseries Alguien tiene que morir under director Manolo Caro. She worked alongside Carmen Maura on a story set in 1950s Spain, so she had to adapt her delivery to a much more restrained and theatrical style of speech.

During 2022, she worked under Jaume Balagueró to film Venus. The film demanded an extreme physical effort in a horror setting inspired by the stories of Lovecraft. It was her first major solo lead role after the rise of youth fiction years earlier.

There was no Plan B.

In 2023, she traveled to Mexico to take part in Lost in the Night, a film directed by Amat Escalante. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and marked her entry into the A-list festival circuit. The Madrid-born actress has always aimed to diversify the origins of her productions.

The International Market and Technical Shoots

In mid-2023, she moved back to Mexico to shoot the series Bandidos. The production premiered in March 2024 and marked her first foray into pure action adventure with an international cast. She plays Lilí, a con artist searching for Mayan treasure on the Yucatán Peninsula.

The Mexican film industry welcomed her naturally.

In 2024, she starred in El llanto, a psychological horror feature that competed in the Official Selection at the San Sebastián Film Festival. The film is a co-production between Spain, France and Argentina, directed by Pedro Martín-Calero. The film's budget exceeded three million euros, and the shoot was divided into technical blocks to capture the light of different seasons in Madrid and Buenos Aires.