Asier Etxeandía

Asier Etxeandía — Biography

Born Asier Gómez Etxeandía on 27 June 1975 in Bilbao, he trained as an actor in his home province before moving to Madrid at twenty, taking odd jobs while studying acting. He stepped into television with the role of Beni in Un Paso Adelante, and on stage was noticed as master of ceremonies in Cabaret and as Dante in Tomaž Pandur's staging of La Divina Comedia. Wider recognition came through Velvet, where he played Raúl de la Riva, a stylist loosely modeled on designer Yves Saint Laurent. After a brief part in Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces, he reunited with the director for Dolor y gloria; that film and his work in La novia brought two consecutive Goya nominations. He has also pursued music, forming the duo Mastodonte with Italian musician Enrico Barbaro.