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For an actress with little training and experience, Catalina Sandino Moreno made a seismic impression with her first feature film role. In “Maria Full of Grace” (2004), Moreno played the title character who, sick of working a slave-wage job as a flower dethorner in a small village outside Bogota, Columbia, becomes a drug mule and smuggles heroin into the United States. Powerful and emotional, “Maria Full of Grace” became a hit on the international festival circuit. So gripping was Moreno’s performance that she shared with Charlize Theron the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Born in Bogota, Columbia into a middle class family, Moreno was lucky enough to avoid the abject poverty her character Maria suffers. In fact, Moreno had the luxury of not having to work to earn money—she did it only because she wanted to. Moreno became interested in acting, particularly on stage, at a young age. While in high school, she enrolled in the Ruben Di Pietro theater academy in Bogota and from there began acting in various stage productions, including “Acuerdo para Cambiar de Casa”, “Laughing Wild”, Christopher Durang’s comedy about life modern life in urban America, and Tennessee Williams’ “The Dark Room.” It was while still living at home that Moreno got a call for an audition—someone knew that she was studying theater in college and passed her name along. Surprised to hear that an American, Joshua Marston, was making a movie in her country, Moreno was eager to audition. Two weeks later, she got another call saying she had landed the part.

Filming for “Maria Full of Grace” began in September 2002 in her native country, then shifted to New York City. After filming was over, Moreno relocated to New York to attend the Lee Strasberg Institute, but a funny thing happened along the way. Moreno had to go back to Columbia to get her student visa, and on the return trip to New York she was pulled away by Customs officials believing that she was a potential drug mule. Moreno was brought to a small room for questioning and had her bag and clothes searched. Though freaked out at the time, Moreno appreciated the irony later. Meanwhile, Moreno quickly became a known commodity, earning an Independent Spirit Award as Best Actress and nominations for a Screen Actors Guild award, and an Oscar. Moreno then returned to her original love—the stage—making her New York debut as the Spanish princess, Blanche, in the Frog & Peach Theatre Company’s production of Shakespeare’s “King John”.

• Born:
  in Bogota, Columbia
• Job Titles:
  Actor

Education

• Lee Strasberg Institute, New York, 2004

Milestones

• 2004 Made feature acting debut as a young girl who consents to transport heroin into America via her belly in screenwriter/director Joshua Marston’s “Maria Full of Grace”; screened at Sundance; received SAG and Oscar nominations for Best Actress