# Paloma Baeza

Paloma Baeza (born 1 May 1975) is a Mexican-British actress and director. Her 2017 film Poles Apart won the BAFTA Award for Best Short Animation in 2018.

## Biography

Baeza was born in London and spent her childhood in Mexico. Her Mexican father and her British mother were musicians who met in the UK. In 1975, when Baeza was five months old, her parents married in London and they went to Mexico City. They divorced nine years later.
She returned to the UK with her mother in 1985, when she was nine. She began taking acting classes and appeared very early in the London theatres and British television productions. She studied English and Performing Arts at the University of Bristol.
Baeza has acted in a number of films and television programmes, including the 1998 film Far from the Madding Crowd playing the leading role of Bathsheba Everdene, and the 2008 BBC production The Passion as Mary Magdalene. She has also performed on stage, including Navy Pier in 2000 and The Flight Into Egypt in 1996.
Baeza directed a short feature film Watchmen in 2001, which she wrote with actor Cillian Murphy, who also starred. She directed the TV film The Window in 2006. Baeza decided to study animation at the National Film and Television School. For her graduation project, she made the stop-motion short film Poles Apart, which won the BAFTA Award for Best Short Animation in 2018. In 2018, she began directing a CG/live-action film, The Toymaker's Secret, written by her husband Alex Garland. She is also working on a project on the life of Frida Kahlo.

## Personal life

Baeza is married to screenwriter, novelist, and film director Alex Garland; they have a son, Milo, and a daughter, Eva.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1995 | A Kid in King Arthur's Court | Princess Katey | |
| 1997 | The Longest Memory | Lydia | TV film |
| 1998 | Far from the Madding Crowd | Bathsheba Everdene | TV film |
| 1999 | Like Clockwork | Helen | Short film |
| 1999 | Sunburn | Aideen Higgins | |
| 2001 | All Forgotten | Mashenka | Alternative title: "Lover's Prayer" |
| 2001 | That Sinking Feeling | Girl | Short film |
| 2002 | The Escapist | Valerie Hopkins | |
| 2002 | The Project | Irene Lloyd | TV film |
| 2006 | Scars | Sophia | TV film |
| 2007 | Sunshine | Capa's Sister | |
| 2022 | The House | N/A | Directorial debut; Segment: III - Listen again and seek the sun |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1994 | Mud | Phillipa | Series regular, 6 episodes |
| 1994 | Screen Two | Paula | Episode: "Look Me in the Eye" |
| 1995 | Joseph | Dinah | Miniseries, 2 episodes |
| 1996 | No Bananas | Rose Grant | Series regular, 10 episodes |
| 1996 | The Tenant of Wildfell Hall | Rose Markham | Miniseries, 2 episodes |
| 1997 | The Odyssey | Melanthe | Miniseries, 2 episodes |
| 1997 | Bramwell | Emmaline O'Neill | Recurring role, 2 episodes |
| 1998 | The Vanishing Man | Helen Neath | Episode: "Spooks" |
| 1998 | The Magical World of Disney | Sandy | Episode: "A Knight in Camelot" |
| 1999 | A Touch of Frost | Rachel Darrow | Episode: "Private Lives" |
| 2000 | Anna Karenina | Kitty | Miniseries, 4 episodes |
| 2001 | Rebel Heart | Ita Feeney | Miniseries, 4 episodes |
| 2001 | Waking the Dead | Anna Maitland | Episode: "Every Breath You Take" |
| 2001 | The Way We Live Now | Hetta Carbury | Miniseries, 4 episodes |
| 2008 | The Passion | Mary Magdalene | Miniseries |
| 2008 | Spooks | Elizaveta Starkova | Recurring role, 3 episodes |

## Directing credits

* Watchmen (short film, 2001)
* The Window (TV film, 2006)
* The Odds (short film, 2009)
* Poles Apart (short film, 2017)
* The House (Netflix film, 2022)*
* The Toymaker's Secret (TBA)
*Paloma Baeza only directed the third and last part of The House’s collection of short stories.

## Awards

* BAFTA Award for Best Short Animation – Poles Apart (2018)