Blanca Portillo

Blanca Portillo Martínez de Velasco was born in Madrid on 15 June 1963.

Portillo started as an actress in several small theater productions. She earned a degree in drama from the RESAD.

One of her most important performances afterwards was her role of Carol in Oleanna by David Mamet, directed by Joaquín Kremel in 1994.

She made her feature film debut in Entre rojas (1995). In 1996, Luis San Narciso cast her for the hit Telecinco series 7 vidas,. The series lasted for ten years and ran for 204 episodes. Portillo played the role of Carlota, an insecure but brassy hairdresser who married Gonzalo, the owner of a bar which functioned as the central set of the show.

She played a mother in The Color of the Clouds (1997). Her performance in the film earned her a nomination to the Goya Award for Best New Actress. She also participated in the European Spanish dubbing of Finding Nemo. In spite of her success in film and television, she has continued taking part in stage plays both as an actress and as a director.

In 2004, she left 7 vidas to undertake a theatrical project in Argentina named La hija del aire (The daughter of Air) based on a book by Calderón de la Barca. She combined her work on this play with the film Elsa y Fred (2005) in which she plays a woman suspicious of the relationship between her elderly father and his Argentinian neighbor.

In the 2005 film Alatriste, based on a book by Arturo Pérez Reverte, she played a male role, specifically that of a member of the Spanish Inquisition. She shaved her head for the role. The following year, Pedro Almodóvar cast her in his 2006 film Volver. She played Agustina, a friend of the central family who is terminally ill and looking for her missing mother.

She then appeared in Goya's Ghosts by Miloš Forman, playing 18th-century consort Maria Luisa of Parma, and landed her first starring role in a movie in Gracia Querejeta's film Seven Billiard Tables. Here she played the lover of the owner of a billiard club and the daughter of Amparo Baró, her former co-star from 7 Vidas. In 2009, she featured again in a film by Pedro Almodóvar, Broken Embraces playing the role of Judit.

Her work in recent years has seen a return to Spanish television, including a role in Hospital Central, and directing roles in the theater. She had a small role in the 2011 film As Luck Would Have It, starring alongside Salma Hayek.

She starred in the 2016 film Boy Missing.