Photo: Pedro J Pacheco / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Elena Anaya gave one of the most quietly devastating performances I've seen in Almodovar's The Skin I Live In, and the Goya for Best Actress was the least the industry could do. She'd already announced herself in Sex and Lucia years earlier, but that 2011 role asked her to carry unbearable ambiguity, and she never blinked. I like that she works across Spanish and international cinema without chasing Hollywood blandness. There's a watchfulness to her, a sense she's always thinking a layer beneath the dialogue. She's the kind of actor whose name in a cast list makes me trust the film a little more.
Overview
Elena Anaya Gutiérrez (born 17 July 1975) is a Spanish actress. She garnered public recognition in Spain for her performance in Sex and Lucia (2001), which also earned her a nomination to the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress. She starred in The Skin I Live In (2011), for which she won the Goya Award for Best Actress.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Elena Anaya
- Name (Japanese)
- エレナ・アナヤ
- Reading
- えれな・あなや
- Born
- July 17, 1975 (age 50)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Cancer / Rabbit
- Origin
- Palencia, Palencia Province, Spain
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / film actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- 2012 Goya Award for Best Actress
- 2009 Sitges Film Festival Best Actress award
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Film actor — see all → · More people from Spain →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.