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Verónica Echegui
Spanish actress (1983–2025) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Verónica Fernández Echegaray (16 June 1983 – 24 August 2025), known professionally as Verónica Echegui (Spanish pronunciation: [beˈɾonika eˈtʃeɣi]), was a Spanish actress. After making her feature film debut as the title character of the 2006 drama My Name Is Juani, she appeared in films such as My Prison Yard (2008), Kathmandu Lullaby (2012), The Cold Light of Day (2012), Family United (2013), You're Killing Me Susana (2016), The Hunter's Prayer (2017), Unknown Origins (2020), My Heart Goes Boom! (2020), The Offering (2020), Book of Love (2022), Artificial Justice (2023), and Yo no soy esa (2024).
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Echegui also featured in television series such as Fortitude (2015–2017), Trust (2018), Intimacy (2022), and Love You to Death (2025).
In 2020, her short film and directorial debut Tótem Loba was released; it won the Best Short Film at the Goya Awards in 2022. She was the recipient of several accolades for acting merits, including four Goya Award nominations and two Gaudí Awards.
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Early life
Verónica Fernández Echegaray[1] was born in Madrid on 16 June 1983.[2] Her father is a lawyer and her mother a civil servant.[3] She took the entrance exams for the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático,[4] landing her television role in Paco y Veva two years after entering the school.[5] Moving to London, she trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, while working as a waitress.[3][6]
Career
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Echegui landed her first television work with a minor role in the series Una nueva vida, followed by an appearance in the series Paco y Veva.[7] In 2005, she did theatre work in Tomaž Pandur's play Infierno, which was staged at the Teatro María Guerrero.[8] For her big screen debut,[9] Echegui starred in Bigas Luna's My Name Is Juani, portraying the title character, a 18-year-old woman who moves to Madrid to pursue her dreams of becoming an actress.[10][3] After being told by her agent that Bigas Luna was looking for the role for an average Jane instead of an actress, Echegui attended the first casting call for the film pretending not to be an actress.[11] The film landed her a nomination for the Goya Award for Best New Actress and launched her career.[12] Early roles also include her appearance in the TV movie Un difunto, seis mujeres y un taller.[7] She went on to star in The Lesser Evil (2007) along with Carmen Maura and Roberto Álvarez as the temperamental lover of a right-wing politician.[13] Likewise, the film 8 Dates, presented at the 2008 Málaga Film Festival, gave her the opportunity to try her hand at comedy.[14] She also trained an Argentine accent for her role in the Basque conflict-themed film La casa de mi padre (2008), which premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.[15][16]
Echegui's portrayal of a "gutsy, streetwise" convict seeking redemption in the prison drama My Prison Yard (2008) won her her first nomination for the Goya Award for Best Actress.[17][18]
The European Film Promotion Jury selected Echegui as one of ten up-and-coming European actors to be awarded the 2009 Shooting Stars Award.[19] In 2009, she co-starred in the British comedy Bunny and the Bull as a lively Spanish waitress for her first international film work.[20][21]
In 2012, Craig Mathieson wrote in The Age: "In Roberto Perez Toledo's romantic drama Six Points about Emma she plays a confident blind woman, while for Manuel Martín Cuenca's sparsely atmospheric Half of Oscar she is a silent, recessive sibling circling her estranged brother, and in Icíar Bollaín's Kathmandu Lullaby she displays a forthright passion as a teacher trying to help abandoned children in Nepal."[22] She also played a part in the Madrid-set spy thriller The Cold Light of Day (2012), which received negative feedback from critics and audiences alike.[23]
In 2016, she co-starred as an aspiring novelist opposite to Gael García Bernal in the Mexican film You're Killing Me Susana,[24] and along with David Verdaguer and Álex García in a love triangle in the romantic comedy Don't Blame the Karma for Being an Idiot, after prior cast choice Clara Lago withdrew from the project.[25] Echegui was invited to membership in the AMPAS in 2018.[26]
In 2020, Echegui co-starred in the jukebox musical comedy My Heart Goes Boom!, featuring songs by Raffaella Carrà.[27] She portrayed Amparo, a character noted for her Murcian Spanish accent.[27] For her supporting role in the film she landed another Goya nomination, as well as a Feroz Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Film. Echegui went on to win the Gaudí Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the The Offering (2020), a drama halfway between "Greek tragedy and psychological thriller" playing a deeply traumatised woman surrounded by toxic relationships.[28][29] Echegui stated that had "never done anything so 'obsessive', so to speak, but at the same time, that's what attracted me most when I read the script".[29] She also portrayed hard-boiled cop and cosplay-loving Norma in Unknown Origins.[30][31]
In 2021, she debuted as a director with the short film Tótem loba, which won her the Goya Award for Best Fictional Short Film.[32] She appeared in the 2022 drama miniseries Intimacy, playing a factory worker in a vulnerable situation who commits suicide after the disclosure of a sexual video featuring her,[33] and in the 2023 historical drama miniseries The Patients of Dr. García as a Falangist woman from a wealthy family.[34] In 2024, she starred in the coming-of-age comedy Yo no soy esa,[35] and as a judge in Artificial Justice, a thriller set in a near future delving on the meddling of artificial intelligence in the justice system.[36][37]
In 2025, Echegui starred in the romantic comedy series Love You To Death.[38] She left a work in a series, Ciudad de sombras, pending for a posthumous release.[39]
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Personal life and death
Echegui was a relative of José Echegaray and Miguel Echegaray.[40] She was fluent in Spanish, Italian and English.[41] After meeting in the Canary Islands during the filming of Six Points About Emma in 2010 and up until 2023, she was in a relationship with actor Álex García.[42]
Echegui died of cancer at Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid, on 24 August 2025, at the age of 42.[21][43][40] Several colleagues, including Sara Sálamo, Silvia Alonso, Susana Abaitua, Vicky Luengo, Dafne Fernández, Elisa Matilla, and Paco León, attended her lying in repose at the La Paz funeral home in Alcobendas.[44]
Filmography
Film
Television
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Accolades
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References
External links
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