Santiago Segura
Santiago Segura Silva (born 17 July 1965) is a Spanish filmmaker and actor, best known for his "Torrente" film series. He also worked to a lesser extent as a TV presenter, voice actor and comic book writer, as well as being a collector of original comic books. At 12, he began making films with a Super-8 camera, and, after a recommendation from Fernando Trueba, began to make films in 35 mm, funded by his appearances in TV game shows. Fame would come with his first feature, "Torrente, el brazo tonto de la ley", to be followed by numerous  sequels that would make it the highest grossing Spanish film series. Life and career. Santiago was born in the Carabanchel neighbourhood in Madrid. After studying Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid, he decided to pursue a career as a filmmaker and in 1989 he directed the short "Relatos de medianoche" with a budget of 7000 pesetas (around US$50). In 1992 he went on to direct his first professional short "Evilio", followed with "Perturbado" in 1993. Segura is a recurring protagonist in the works of directors Alex de la Iglesia and Guillermo del Toro. In 1993, he had a  small role in Alex de la Iglesia's film "Acción mutante". Two years later, he starred in "El día de la Bestia", from the same director and that role made him famous in Spain. In 1998 he directed the film that brought him to stardom, "Torrente: El brazo tonto de la ley" (1998), in which he also acted as the lead character José Luis Torrente, a sleazy crime-fighter. Its popularity led to a sequel ("") and a computer game ("Torrente: El juego"). "Torrente 2: Misión en Marbella" made €22,838,500 at the Spanish box office, becoming the highest grossing Spanish  film of all time. "", the third film in the series, was released in September 2005. Its advertising campaign parodied "Batman Begins", using the phrase "Torrente Acabado" ("Torrente Finished"). Although he declared "Torrente 3: El protector" would be the last of the Torrente series, "Torrente 4" was released in 2011. In 2010, he played the title role in "El gran Vázquez", based on the life of the legendary cartoonist/wastrel Manuel Vázquez Gallego. In 2014 he released "" with Alec Baldwin as guest star, and was the top release of 2014 in Spain. He has since made his way into American culture  by making appearances in movies such as "Pacific Rim", "Hellboy", "" and "Blade II" (all of them by Del Toro), "Perdita Durango" (by De la Iglesia), Jack and Jill and "". He has also dubbed video games to Spanish, like Jack Black's role in "Brütal Legend". Because of his success, Santiago Segura has become a producer. He owns Amiguetes Entertainment company, he is associated with the theater in Estación del Norte in Madrid, and has produced "Promedio rojo" (2004) (featuring Nicolás López) and "Aquí mando yo... y punto com". In 2018 he appeared in the third season of "MasterChef Celebrity". He  was the 10th contestant to be eliminated.