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Actor

1980-01-13 · Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico · Female

7 series in the catalog

Adriana Paz (born January 13, 1980) is a Mexican actress and dancer. She began her artistic career in Spain, shooting commercials and acting in a play. She was recognized for her role as Toña in the Mexican film Rudo y Cursi (2009) with a nomination for the Ariel Award for Best Supporting Actress. She garnered critical praise starring as Miranda in Las Horas Muertas (2013), for which she was awarded Best Actress at the Morelia International Film Festival. She subsequently starred in the TV series Sucedió en Un Día (2010), Capadocia (2010), El Encanto del Aguila (2011), Dios, Inc. (2016), and Vis a vis (2018–2019).

Paz is also featured in other films, including Todos los Besos (2007), Backyard: El Traspatio (2009), Not Forgotten (2009), Un Mexicano Más (2009), El Mar Muerto (2010), 4 Maras (2012), Morelos (2012), Elysium (2013), Spectre, and Las Aparicio (2015). For her lead performance in the drama La Tirisia (2014), she received the Ariel Award for Best Actress and for the films Hilda (2015) and La Caridad (2016) she won two consecutive Ariel Awards for Best Supporting Actress. In 2017, her performance in El Autor earned her a nomination for the Goya Award for Best New Actress. For her role in the film Emilia Pérez, Paz was recognized with the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress in 2024.

Background

Adriana Paz was born in Mexico City in 1980. She wanted to study dramatic literature and theater, but was accepted at the School of Philosophy and Letters of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Upon graduation, Paz relocated to Spain to join the Estudi Dansa Montserrat in Tarragona and the Estudis de Teatre in Barcelona. During her stay in Spain she had to support herself working in a flea market, a kindergarten, and as a tourist guide. Paz also shot two commercials, acted in a play, and toured as a dancer. She took dance classes, attended theater workshops, and learned to speak the Catalan language.

Career

2003–2009: Film debut in Todos los Besos and Rudo y Cursi

Paz joined the cast of the play Callejón de Lis, written by Joseph Danan and directed by Jean-Frédéric Chevallier, which ran in 2003 at the La Capilla Theater. Her television debut was in the series Historias de Leyenda, broadcast by Canal Once. Her first film role was in Todos los Besos, an independent film directed by César Aliosha in 2008. That same year, Paz shared her head shots with actor Manuel Teil, who then invited her to the casting for a film. Later she was invited to the casting sessions for Carlos Cuarón's first feature film. At a callback meeting, Paz met Cuarón and Diego Luna, and the following day Teil told her that she had won the role of Toña, the wife of Beto "Rudo", the character played by Luna. The film, Rudo y Cursi (2009), starring Luna and Gael García Bernal, is about two soccer players who are half-brothers and become rivals when a talent scout discovers them and asks them to try out for a professional team. Reviewing the film, Pete Hammond of Backstage magazine, was critical of the film's female roles, explaining that "[Dolores] Heredia and Paz don't have a lot to do but are also fine in a generally top-notch cast". Paz received her first Ariel Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Rudo y Cursi. The following year, she was featured in the film Backyard: El Traspatio, directed by Carlos Carrera.

2009–2012: El Mar Muerto, Un Mexicano Más and first leading role in Las Horas Muertas

Paz played a supporting role in the film El Mar Muerto directed by Ignacio Ortíz in 2009, starring Aída López, Joaquín Cosio, Leticia Gutiérrez, and Mario Almada. The film used the historic center of Mexico City as its main location, and the plot was about a murder that happens during a blackout. She later appeared in Un Mexicano Más (2010), directed by René Cardona III, based on the book of the same title written by Juan Sánchez Andraka. Of her role in the film, a prostitute named La Chiquis, Paz told TV Notas: "she [La Chiquis] works with Don Leodegario (Ernesto Gómez Cruz) at his restaurant bar and seeks to find a husband who will take her out of the village, but until that happens she is having a lot of fun with him, the male teachers, and all the men who pass through the village".

In 2010, Paz starred with Kristyan Ferrer in the film Las Horas Muertas, directed by Aarón Fernández; this was the first lead role for the actress. In the film, Sebastián (Ferrer) runs a motel and starts a relationship with a regular client named Miranda (Paz). Jay Weissberg of Variety stated that it was a "truly breakthrough role" for Paz, since she "enlivens the screen with palpable charm". Weissberg also said that "without the warmth and ironic self-awareness that Paz brings to Miranda, the pic might have been a lesser vehicle, or at least a less absorbing one". Las Horas Muertas was screened during the 2013 Morelia International Film Festival, where Paz was named Best Actress. She was unable to attend the festival as she was about to give birth to her son. About the award, the actress stated to El Sol de México: "I do not like to think about awards, it is better to make things for the pleasure of doing them and, if they arrive [accolades] are appreciated and enjoyed". In 2011, Paz also had a small role in Elysium directed by Neill Blomkamp starring Matt Damon, and was also featured in the film Morelos by Antonio Serrano, about the last days of José María Morelos' military career.

2014: La Tirisia

Paz played Cheba, the lead role in La Tirisia, a film written, produced, and directed by Jorge Pérez Solano (2014). The plot, inspired by a popular term tirisia (which means "a perpetual sadness defined as 'the death of the spirit'"), is set in the Mixteca region of Mexico, and centers on two women (Paz and Gabriela Cartol) who were impregnated by Sylvestre (Gustavo Sánchez Parra). When Cheba's estranged husband returns to town, he finds her sunk into a deep depression since she had to give away her newborn (Sylvestre's child). About the film, Paz said to Diario de Xalapa: "It is a very well-written story that required characters with depth; when I read it, it brought me great joy and made me say 'I want to watch this'. The first time I watched it I was shocked; it left a lump in my throat. It is beautiful". The film was not exhibited in commercial movie theaters in Mexico because distribution was too expensive. Instead, La Tirisia was screened at film festivals such as the Chicago International Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and the Toulouse Latinoamerican Film Festival, and later had a month-and-a-half stretch at the Mexican art house Cineteca Nacional. Paz commented about it: "It is not very fair. We do not have the same resources that the big production companies have, and we don't have the same possibilities for making films. It is very difficult to produce a project and know that there is not a fair distribution and exhibition of these films".

Paz' performance was praised by Boyd van Hoeij of The Hollywood Reporter, who said she was "exceptional as a passionate woman who has needs and desires of her own but who's boxed in by society's rigid expectations for her gender". Jaime López Blanco of Sputnik magazine referred to her acting as "fascinating on that introspection of a mother dead inside, suffering the absence of one of their children". At the 57th Ariel Awards, Paz received the Best Actress award for her role in the film. Upon winning, Paz said: "it definitely forces me to not lower the quality of my work... the other part is the joy it generates in me, the support that I am getting from the Academy, because it gives me the chance to be known as a good actress. This award speaks for myself and my duty is to continue along that line and go for characters that challenge me more".

2015–2016: Spectre and Hilda

In 2015, Paz told El Financiero of her wish to do a musical project, since she "loves to sing" and wanted to return to the stage…