Macarena Gómez

Macarena Gómez never needed to fit the mold of the typical Spanish actress. After studying three years of drama in London, she arrived in Madrid with rigorous technique and eyes so striking they defy any close-up.

In 2001 American director Stuart Gordon chose her for Dagon, a production shot in Galicia where she played an amphibious priestess.

No one builds a career like this by chance.

Television came soon after. Director Manuel Estudillo cast her in 2002 for the miniseries Padre Coraje, where she played a young woman struggling with addiction with a raw intensity that left viewers completely stunned.

From Trench Horror to Apartment Block Drama

In 2007 she agreed to step into the shoes of Lola Trujillo for La que se avecina. More than 170 episodes aired back up a wildly over-the-top comedic performance that, in the hands of another actress, could have slipped into unbearable caricature.

But while millions of viewers watched her on television eating dinner in Montepinar, Gómez was making independent films at all hours.

In 2008 she led the cast of Sexykiller, morirás por ella under the direction of Miguel Martí, a bloody satire packed with black humor and chainsaws. Commercial theaters didn't deliver the box office distributors had hoped for, but the film quickly found a cult following at festivals around the world.

And fantasy cinema never let her go.

Montse's Confinement and Álex de la Iglesia's Call

In 2014 directors Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel handed her the script for Shrew's Nest, a production backed by Pokeepsie Films. Gómez took on the role of Montse, an agoraphobic seamstress who lives locked in a post-war apartment in Madrid, caught between psychotic episodes and religious imagery.

That role earned her her first Goya nomination for Best Actress in 2015, a hard-fought nomination against established names in the industry.

Álex de la Iglesia had already had her flying on wires in Witching & Bitching in 2013.

In 2020 the filmmaker called her back for 30 Coins on HBO, where she played Merche across two seasons full of prosthetics and physical violence.

Getting dirty on set always felt more natural to her than posing on a photocall.

The move into production offices

In 2019 she founded the production company Cilantro Films with director Kiko Prada to finance projects outside the formulas of traditional television.

So she learned to review budgets, seek out private investors and negotiate international presale contracts.

With that foundation, she built comedies such as Amor en polvo in 2020 and the crime thriller Polar in 2021, filmed on locations in Córdoba and Seville.

In 2023 she co-starred in and produced the underwater horror film Deep Fear alongside British actor Ed Westwick.

The shoot was completed entirely in the seawater tanks of Malta, a complex technical challenge where crews had to rotate every three hours.

The shoot required three Arri Alexa Mini LF underwater cameras housed in airtight casings and a team of professional divers that limited the actors' working time to just four dives a day.