María Belén Rueda García-Porrero, a renowned Spanish actress, was born on March 16, 1965, in Madrid. She is the second of three children, preceded by sister María Jesús (Chus) and followed by brother Alfonso. Her parents, a civil engineer father and a ballet instructor mother, moved the family to San Juan, Alicante when Rueda was a child.
As she grew older, Rueda's career path took an unexpected turn. At the age of 18, she moved to Madrid to study architecture, but left the university when she met an Italian man whom she later married. Instead, she worked as a salesperson and a model until she became a TV presenter.
Rueda's transition to acting on television proved to be a successful one, with her notable role as Lucía in the TV series Los Serrano (2003). Her breakthrough in film came with her role as Julia in The Sea Inside (2004),for which she won a Goya Award. She received another Goya nomination for her role in the 2007 film, The Orphanage (2007).
Rueda's most recent lead roles include the Spanish thriller Julia's Eyes (2010),produced by Guillermo del Toro, and Oriol Paulo's thriller The Body (2012).
