| Catalina Sandino Moreno | |
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Sandino at Cannes 2008 |
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| Born | Catalina Sandino Moreno 19 April 1981 Bogotá, Colombia |
| Years active | 2004–present |
Catalina Sandino Moreno (born April 19, 1981) is a Colombian actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Maria Full of Grace (2004).
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Sandino Moreno was born in Bogotá, Colombia to a pathologist mother and a cattle breeder/veterinarian father.[1][2] She went to Saint George's School in Bogota where she graduated in 2000. Before becoming an actress, she studied advertising at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. She relocated to New York City in 2004, after she was noticed for her talent at the Rubén Di Pietro acting school in Bogotá. She was then referred to a casting audition for the 2004 film Maria Full of Grace where she beat over 900 girls for the lead role. Sandino Moreno's role in this movie made her the second South American and third Hispanic actress nominated for an Academy Award.
In 2006 she played roles in Fast Food Nation and Paris, je t'aime. In 2008 she appeared alongside Benicio del Toro in Steven Soderberghs Che Part One: The Argentine and Che Part Two: Guerrilla, playing the role of Aleida March de Guevara. She played the role of female Vampire Maria in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), based on the same named novel by Stephenie Meyer.
Sandino Moreno lived with motion picture electrician David Elwell from 2002 to 2008, whom she met working on Maria Full of Grace. She married him on April 15, 2006 in a small ceremony held in Cartagena de Indias.[3]. She has one child with New York photographer Alvaro Corzo.