Ben Cura
Ben Cura (born 30 September 1988) is a British-Argentine actor and director of film, television and theatre. Early life. José Ben Cura was born in Buenos Aires, the son of Argentine tenor/conductor José Cura. When he was a year old, he moved to Santo Stefano Belbo, Italy, where his father's grandfather was from. The family first lived in a convent while his father struggled to find work as an opera singer. He has two younger siblings, Yazmín and Nicolás. The family moved to France when he was six and then to Spain when he was  11. During this time, he frequently travelled with his parents around the world. Cura's first acting role came at age nine, as a supernumerary in a production of "La Forza del Destino" at the Opéra de Marseille, France. Whilst living in Paris, he received formal piano and solfège training. He subsequently attended the New York Film Academy in Paris, France before eventually training and graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 2011 with a bachelor's degree with honours in professional acting. Career. Cura made his film debut in a British independent film "Comes a  Bright Day", appearing shortly after in Comedy Central's series "Threesome" and Bernard Rose's film "The Devil's Violinist". He made his West End debut playing Angel in the original cast of Jennifer Saunders' musical "Viva Forever" at the Piccadilly Theatre in London, UK. He was later cast as "Seve Ballesteros" in British golf film "Dream On". Aged 24, he made his directorial debut with a film adaptation of August Strindberg's play "Creditors". for which he also wrote the screenplay and played one of the lead characters, "Freddie Lynch". Later that year, he starred in the UK premiere  of the award-winning American play Next Fall at the Southwark Playhouse in London, UK. In April 2013, he co-founded London-based production company Tough Dance Ltd. with actress and producer Andrea Deck. The company's first production was award-winning feature film "Creditors". In 2015, he was cast in the US series "The Royals" as recurring character "Holden". He later went on to star in British film "White Island" set in Ibiza, and based on the novel "A Bus Could Run You Over" written by Colin Butts, alongside Billy Zane and Billy Boyd. Cura's directorial debut "Creditors  world-premiered at the Nordic International Film Festival in New York City on 31 October 2015. The festival awarded it with an Honorable Mention in the Best Nordic Narrative Feature category. Latin Post" film critic David Salazar called the film "A triumphant debut" "Blazing Minds" film critic Susanne Hodder said of the actors that "all give compelling performances, bringing their characters to life and giving them depth", "Screen Relish" film critic Stuie Greenfield said that "Creditors is a beautiful, sometimes angry and surprising film that brings with it strong performances from the entire cast as well as an unexpected yet  welcome twist" while "Movie Marker" film critic Darryl Griffiths said that "Creditors is an incisive and accomplished piece of filmmaking [...], possessing a rich, powerful psychology that instills an unnerving modern-day relevance to age-old material." "Creditors" received over ten awards, including "Best Feature", "Leading Actor", and "Script/Writer" for Cura. Later that year, Cura was cast as a series regular in ITV/Netflix crime noir drama "Marcella" penned by "The Bridge" writer Hans Rosenfeldt. The series premiered on UK television in April 2016, followed by a worldwide release on Netflix in July 2016. and Simon West's action/comedy  feature film "Gun Shy" opposite Antonio Banderas and Olga Kurylenko. In 2017, Cura was cast as CIA operative Philip Shafer in French historical war movie "15 minutes de guerre" (renamed "L'Intervention"), directed by Fred Grivois. Later that year, he played the role of Steve in the screen adaptation of British stage play "Life is a Gatecrash", renamed "Gatecrash" and directed by Lawrence Gough, opposite Olivia Bonamy, Anton Lesser, and Sam West. In 2018, Cura guest-starred in Season 2 of CBS's "Ransom" and the first season of new TV series "The Rook", opposite Olivia Munn. In 2019, he was  cast in Nicholas Wright's new stage play "8 Hotels" directed by Richard Eyre, world-premiering at the Chichester Festival Theatre, playing the lead role of José Ferrer opposite Tory Kittles, Emma Paetz, and Pandora Colin, opening August 7 of that year to excellent reviews: "Joe, played masterfully by Ben Cura, is wonderful as the philanderer who can accept his wife's adultery but not her lover's flaunting of it"; "Jose Ferrer [...] Ben Cura, who captures him very well, has a wonderful mutually mistrustful good-pals-act with the impressive Kittles"; "Ben Cura is excellent as Ferrer [...] with charisma  to spare"; "Ben Cura plays José Ferrer as a much disappointed jobbing actor [...] playing Iago for peanuts opposite the better paid Robeson [...] This Ferrer becomes increasingly jealous of Robeson and is convinced that his wife, Uta Hagen [...] is having an affair with the charismatic Robeson (she is), which fills him with an angry cynicism that he can barely control with his erudite and scathing humour that cannot disguise his underlying lack of confidence. Cura's Ferrer is a brilliant creation: a brilliant Iago in fact." In 2021, Cura released his debut music single "Water" on streaming platforms, accompanied by  an official music video on VEVO followed by second single "Toutes Les Couleurs" and its accompanying VEVO music video and a third single "Argento" alongside a third VEVO music video. On July 30th, he released his debut instrumental E.P. "Extended Play No.1". Personal life. Cura was married to actress Andrea Deck from 2013 until their divorce in 2015. He dated actress Olga Kurylenko, but they broke up just before the COVID-19 pandemic.