Santiago Segura Silva (born 17 July 1965) is a Spanish filmmaker and actor. He also worked to a lesser extent as a television presenter, voice actor and comic book writer, as well as being a collector of original comic books.
At 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 earned early recognition for his performance as a metalhead in 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 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 cop. The film, that won Segura the Goya Award for Best New Director, was followed by four sequels (Torrente 2: Mission in Marbella, Torrente 3: El protector, Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis and Torrente 5: Operación Eurovegas) that made the highest-grossing Spanish film series.
He then went on to direct films with a lighter tone, likewise churning domestic box-office hits with children comedies such as Father There Is Only One (and its two sequels) and The Kids Are Alright.
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 7000 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, from the same director and that role made him famous in Spain. In 1998 he directed the film that brought him to stardom, Torrente: El brazo tonto de la ley (1998), in which he also acted as the lead character José Luis Torrente, a sleazy crime-fighter. Its popularity led to a sequel (Torrente 2: Misión en Marbella) and a computer game (Torrente: El juego).
Torrente 2: Misión en Marbella made €22,838,500 at the Spanish box office, becoming the highest grossing Spanish film of all time. Torrente 3: El protector, the third film in the series, 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 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 was 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 by Del Toro), Perdita Durango (by De la Iglesia), Jack and Jill and Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London.
He has also dubbed video games to Spanish, like Jack Black's role in Brütal Legend.
Because of his success, Santiago Segura has become a producer. He owns Amiguetes Entertainment company, he is associated with the theater in Estación del Norte in Madrid, and has produced Promedio rojo (2004) (featuring Nicolás López) and Aquí mando yo... y punto com.
In 2018 he appeared in the third season of MasterChef Celebrity. He was the 10th contestant to be eliminated.
