With her expressive brown eyes, lustrous dark hair and flawless olive skin, Penelope Cruz burst on the scene as a teenager lending an air of sultry innocence and a flair for drollery and nudity as the sexy ingenue in Bigas Lunas’ American art-house hit “Jamon Jamon” (1992). She solidified her status as a rising star playing the virginal Luz in Ferdinand Trueba’s 1994 Oscar-winning “Belle Epoch”. Born in Madrid, Cruz began studying dance as a teenager. At age 15, she auditioned for a talent agent who signed her immediately. Within two years, she had segued to the big screen in “El Laberinto Griego/The Greek Labyrinth” (1992) before her breakthrough in “Jamon Jamon”.
