Santiago Segura Silva (born 17 July 1965) is a Spanish filmmaker and actor. He has also worked to a lesser extent as a television presenter, voice actor, and comic book writer, as well as a collector of original comic books.
At the age of 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.
He received early recognition for his performance as a metalhead in the 1995 film The Day of the Beast (billed as a "satanic comedy"), which won him the Goya Award for Best New Actor.
Great success would come with his directorial feature debut, 1998's dark action-comedy and box-office hit Torrente, the Dumb Arm of the Law, in which he stars as José Luis Torrente, a racist, homophobic, xenophobic, and fascist former police officer. The film won Segura the Goya Award for Best New Director, it was followed by a film series of five sequels: Torrente 2: Mission in Marbella (2001), Torrente 3: el protector (2005), Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis (2011), Torrente 5: Operación Eurovegas (2014), and Torrente for President (2026), making it the highest-grossing Spanish film series.
He then went on to direct films with a lighter tone, likewise churning out domestic hits with children's comedies such as Father There Is Only One (plus four sequels) and The Kids Are Alright (and its sequel).
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Life and career
Santiago Segura Silva was born in Madrid on 17 July 1965. He was raised in the city's district of Carabanchel. 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 7,000 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 actor 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 by the same director and made a name for himself in Spain. In 1998 he directed the film that brought him stardom, Torrente, the Dumb Arm of the Law (1998), in which he also played the lead character José Luis Torrente, a sleazy crime-fighter. Its popularity led to a film series of five sequels and two computer games (Torrente and Torrente 3: The Protector).
Torrente 2: Mission in Marbella made €22,838,500 at the Spanish box office, becoming the highest-grossing Spanish film of all time. Torrente 3: el protector 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: Lethal Crisis 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 Torrente 5: Operación Eurovegas with Alec Baldwin as guest star,, and it became 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, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and Blade II (all of them directed by Guillermo Del Toro); Perdita Durango (by De la Iglesia); Jack and Jill; and Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London.
He has also dubbed video games into Spanish, like voicing Jack Black's role in Brütal Legend.
Filmography
Short film
Associate producer
Wild Flower (2012)