Family
   Brother: Eduardo Cruz Jr. born c. 1985
   Father: Eduardo Cruz.
   Mother: Encarna Cruz. runs Cruz's business affairs
   Sister: Monica Cruz. born c. 1977; was a professional flemenco dancer; left her dancing career and achieved fame in the youth-oriented TV series "Un Paso Adelante"

Penelope Cruz Biography
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 ingénue 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.”
As a rising star in her native Spain, Cruz got to work with top directors and played myriad parts ranging from the Virgin Mary in "Per Amore, Solo per amore/For Love, Only for Love" (1993) to a medieval bride in "Celestina" (1996) to a pregnant prostitute in Pedro Almodovar's "Live Flesh" (1997) to the supportive girlfriend of a man disfigured in car accident in Alejandro Amenabar's "Open Your Eyes" (1998). She reunited with both Trueba and Almodovar for two her best screen performances to date. Purportedly based on a true incident, Trueba's "The Girl of My Dreams/La Nina de tus ojos" (1998) allowed the actress to pay homage to her grandmother in her portrayal of an Adalusian cabaret singer trapped in Nazi Germany who catches the attention of propaganda minister Josef Goebbels. Almodovar once again had her playing a woman with child in the Cannes favorite "Todo sobre mi madre/All About My Mother" (1999) although this time in a sly bit of irony, the fragile beauty portrayed a nun.