María Onetto (18 August 1966 – 2 March 2023) was an Argentine theatre, film, and television actress. She received the 2011 Konex Award in entertainment for her theatrical work, and is also well known for her role in the 2006 Argentine TV series Montecristo, for which she won the Clarín and Martín Fierro Awards as best actress in drama and rising star. She also directed a localized production of rock musical Passing Strange in 2011.
Onetto was born in Buenos Aires on 18 August 1966. She was the daughter of Estela Mary Pastore and Jorge Onetto, an employee of the energy company Segba (Servicios Eléctricos del Gran Buenos Aires) and restaurateur who died of a sudden myocardial infarction in 1967 when María was one year old. The family lived in the suburb of Martínez, Buenos Aires. She was enrolled in a Catholic school, and at age 17 she began studying psychology at the University of Buenos Aires, where she took up acting in the theater. She graduated in four years and for a time worked in the same school as her mother, preparing psycho-pedagogical reports. In 1991 she entered Sportivo Teatral, Ricardo Bartís's theater workshop, which she greatly enjoyed. After taking classes there, she taught other actors. She left in 1996, planning to study literature, and moved to Benavídez, Argentina, but found she did want to be an actress, which she began with Rafael Spregelburd's production Dragging the Cross, after which she ceased other work to focus solely on acting.
Onetto starred in Lucrecia Martel's 2008 film The Headless Woman, playing Veroníca, a middle-aged woman who becomes haunted by guilt and disconnected from her normal life after a hit and run with an unidentified object.
Onetto featured in a 2021 production of Eduardo "Tato" Pavlovsky's 1987 play Potestad (lit. Power) directed by Norman Briski, which takes inspiration from Noh theater and in which Onetto plays a male girl's kidnapper during Argentina's last dictatorship.
Maria Onetto was found dead in her apartment in Buenos Aires on 2 March 2023, at the age of 56. Information released by the Buenos Aires City Police confirmed that she had died by suicide.
Film
2000: Lejanía (short film)
2005: Cuatro mujeres descalzas
2006: La punta del diablo
2007: The Other, as the hotel receptionist
2007: Arizona sur, as the patron
2008: The Headless Woman, as Verónica
2008: Horizontal / Vertical, as Guadalupe
2009: Nunca estuviste tan adorable, as Blanca
2009: Rompecabezas, as María del Carmen
2013: El cerrajero
2014: The Seagull (adaptation)
2014: Wild tales
2015: La vida después
2016: 2001: Mientras Kubrick estaba en el espacio, as Felipe's mother
2017: The Heavy Hand of the Law
Television
2004: El disfraz, as Dra. Lavalle
2005: Mujeres asesinas 1
Episode 3: Claudia, cuchillera
Episode 10: Stella, huérfana emocional
Episode 19: Patricia, vengadora
2006: Montecristo, as Leticia Lombardo
2008: Mujeres asesinas 4; Episode 11: "Noemí, desquiciada"
2009: Tratame bien, as Elsa
2010: Lo que el tiempo nos dejó
2011: Televisión x la inclusión; Chapter 11: "Daños y prejuicios"
2012: 23 pares
2014: Santos y pecadores: Televisión x la justicia; Chapter 6: "Lazos que duelen"
2014: La celebración; Chapter 4: "Bautismo"
2014: En terapia
2016: La pulsera
2017: Mis noches sin ti
2018–2019: Mi hermano es un clon, as Elena Mónaco
2023: Ringo, gloria y muerte
Theater
2011: Los hijos se han dormido
2013: Sonata de Otoño
2016: Idénticos
2017: Sobre Mirjana y los que la rodean
2017: Pequeño estado de gracia
2019: La persona deprimida
2021: Hipólita Pondera la Conquista
2021: Potestad
María Onetto at the National Cinema website
Biography of María Onetto at the Konex Foundation