Catalina Sandino Moreno was born 19th April 1981 to a middle-class family in Bogotá, Columbia. Her father is a veterinarian and mother a pathologist. Catalina became interested in acting, particularly on stage, at a young age. She was studying for a degree in advertising at a college while taking acting classes as a hobby. In 1997 while in high school she enrolled in the Ruben Di Pietro Theatre Academy in Bogotá, acting in such productions as Acuerdo para Cambien de Casa by Griselda Gambaro, The Dark Room by Tennessee Williams and Laughing Wild by Christopher Durang. “I was studying theater through my whole high school and my whole college, in a little independent theater with an Argentinian director”, Catalina said of her background with theatre. But unfortunately her dreams of being a stage actress were not very realistic. “If you do theater in Colombia you’ll die from hunger”, she said.

But unknown to Catalina, she already had a secret admirer. Apparently someone had seen her act and called her house, telling Catalina about an American filmmaker looking for a 17-year-old Colombian girl for a new movie. The filmmaker was, of course, Joshua Marston and the movie Maria Full of Grace. Marston saw 800 girls before Catalina Sandino Moreno sent him a tape. Catalina first read for the part of Blanca but the casting director liked her and introduced her to Marston. When she walked in, Marston says, “It was like seeing an old friend”. Two weeks later, he cast Catalina in the leading part as María Álvarez. To this day, Catalina still does not know who this unknown admirer was.

Filming for Maria Full of Grace began in September 2002 in Catalina’s native country, then shifted to New York City. After the filming was over, she fulfilled one of her biggest dreams and relocated to New York to attend the Lee Strasberg Institute. Maria Full of Grace premiered in January 2004 at the Sundance Film Festival and ended up being one of the most acclaimed movies of 2004. Catalina’s powerful performance and magnetic screen presence quickly became a known commodity, earning the actress an Independent Spirit Award as Best Actress and nominations for a Screen Actors Guild award, and an Oscar. Moreno then returned to her original love - the stage - making her New York debut as the Spanish princess, Blanche, in the Frog & Peach Theatre Company’s production of Shakespeare’s King John.

Catalina Sandino Moreno has been careful in capitalizing on her success. She lives quietly in Manhattan, where she is studying the scripts that have flowed her way since Maria Full of Grace opened. But too many of the offers are for maids and “spicy” Latinas. “I’m not spicy at all,” she says. “Latins have the horrible stereotype - they’re sexy, they’re beautiful and we can put her in a bikini. I don’t want to do that thing. I want to be a different Latin. So I don’t want to keep stereotyping me - ‘Oh, I am just going to do drama.’ If I can do comedy, I welcome that. I can do … whatever, but I have to really like it.”.

She chose Richard Linklater’s Fast Food Nation as her follow-up project. The script already grabbed her attention but it was only when reading Eric Schlosser’s non-fictional book of the same name that made her realize how real the story was. She wanted to be part of this project because she felt it was an important thing to tell people, everyone had the right to know what’s in their food. In this ensemble piece Catalina plays Sylvia, an undocumented Mexican immigrant. Together with her husband and sister she comes to the USA in the pursuit of the American Dream only to find reality is somewhat different - and includes dangerous work in a huge meat plant.

Other recent work include a segment by Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas for Paris je t’aime and Journey to the End of the Night, set in the underworld of Brazil’s sex industry.

Meeting Ethan Hawke at the 2005 Academy Awards marked the beginning of a close friendship. He has reportedly helped her a lot by giving advice and introducing her to people. He has also confidence in her acting and cast her in the lead role of his directorial debut The Hottest State. Catalina portrays a quirky singer-songwriter in it. The film has premiered at the 2006 Venice Film Festival and is currently awaiting a limited release in the USA.

Then there’s The Heart of the Earth, which is set around the British-owned mines of Andalusia’s Rio Tinto in 1888 and depicts the friendship of two women, one Spanish and the other British, against the social upheavals of the time. Early 2007 the film was released on the big screen in Spain.

In September 2006 Catalina started work on the adaptation of one her favourite books Love in the Time of Cholera. Shooting took place in Cartagena situated in her home country Colombia. Certainly, this project is close to her heart. For us it will be interesting to see her play Hildebranda Sanchez also when she’s 70. The film will be released in various countries across the world late 2007.

On 15th April 2006, just a couple of days before she turned 25 years old, Catalina Sandino Moreno married her boyfriend, lighting technician David Michael Ewell in an intimate civil ceremony in Cartagena de Indies, Colombia. They met while filming Maria Full of Grace and have lived together since 2002.

In the future, Catalina would like to work with Pedro Almodóvar or Alejandro Amenábar or star in an action movie like House of Flying Daggers. Whatever she chooses, you can be certain that Sandino Moreno will do it with the clarity and force that made her Maria the year’s most intriguing and touching performance.