Kuno Becker

Kuno Becker
Born	Eduardo Kuno Becker Paz (1978-01-14) January 14, 1978 Mexico City, Mexico
Other names	Santiago Munez

Eduardo Kuno Becker Paz (born January 14, 1978) is a Mexican actor who has worked in telenovelas, Mexican cinema and U.S. cinema, but is best known for his portrayal of Ruben Berrizabal in Soñadoras and Santiago Muñez in the football movie Goal! and following sequels.

He also starred as Drew Ramos on the American drama series Dallas.

Early years

Becker was born in Mexico City to Manuel Becker Cuellar and Maria del Rocio Teddie Paz Felix. He has two siblings, Gunther and Karine.

Becker's career as an artist began at an early age, although not as an actor but as a musician. When he was six years old, he intended to become a professional violinist. After obtaining a scholarship, he traveled to Europe and began his studies at the Mozarteum in the city of Salzburg, Austria, where he spent several years taking violin lessons with internationally famous teachers such as Denes Zsigmondi and Ruggiero Ricci.

Acting career

At seventeen Kuno made the decision to set aside his career as a violinist, in order to pursue what he now considers his greatest passion, acting. He auditioned with more than 3,200 candidates and was accepted as a student at the Centro de Educación Artística (CEA) of Televisa.

At the age of nineteen, after two years of drama studies, he obtained his first role in the telenovela Para toda la vida (1996), where he starred in 120 episodes. He later participated in 1997, in the music video Corazón by Lynda Thomas, the telenovela Pueblo chico, infierno grande (with Verónica Castro and directed by José Alberto Castro), El Alma no Tiene Color (directed by Juan Osorio) Desencuentro (directed by Ernesto Alonso), Rencor Apasionado (directed by Lucero Suárez), Camila (directed by Angelli Nesma) and Soñadoras his first lead and breakthrough role, where Kuno and Angélica Vale became the most popular on screen couple of all his novelas. Soñadoras has been the novela with the highest rating Kuno has ever starred in, and which has made its way around the world. Its this precise novela, that gave Kuno his worldwide fame, before venturing into film making. In April 2000 Becker concluded shooting the telenovela Mujeres Engañadas, his second lead role alongside veteran actors Elsa Aguirre and Arturo Peniche.

In addition to his work in television, Becker has participated in a couple theatre productions with Televisa. In 1998 he worked in the musical comedy En Roma el Amor es Broma. At the time he was appearing in the telenovela Soñadoras, Becker toured several Mexican cities with his one-man show Culpas Prohibidas. In only a few years, thanks to his talent and Televisa's high profile in Mexico, he has become one of the best-known and best-looking young actors. His latest theatre production was in 2008 when he starred in and produced the critically acclaimed "The Pillowman" written by Martin McDonagh. This last theatre production was a success with Kuno starring as a young man named Michal.

In cinema he provided the voice of Cale, Tobias and Lightning McQueen for the Spanish-dubbing of animated films Titan A.E., The 3 Wise Men and Disney's Cars. He also appeared in the 1997 film La Primera Noche. In 2002 Becker starred in the film La Hija del caníbal (Lucía, Lucía) opposite the Argentine actress Cecilia Roth. Later he starred opposite Antonio Banderas and oscar winner Emma Thompson in the drama-thriller Imagining Argentina. Becker also starred in the historical Kazakhstani epic Nomad filmed in 2004. The production took two years to make and it hit screens in 2006. He also landed the lead role of Santiago Munez in the films Goal! in 2005, Goal! 2: Living the Dream... in 2007 and the final entry in the trilogy, Goal! 3 in 2009. Becker has said that he now wishes to concentrate solely on his film career and is looking for new opportunities not only in Mexican films, but also internationally.

His most recent film projects today are From Mexico with Love, Spoken Word, Te Presento a Laura, La Ultima Muerte, Cabeza de Buda and Panic 5 Bravo.

Not only can he act, play the violin and sing, but he is also a writer. He is currently busy working on his debut script for the Mexican film he will be starring in, which is based on the earthquake that hit Mexico in 1985. The film project is titled "Espacio Interior", the pre-production and filming is already in process. The film is slated to be released September 2010 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1985 earthquake. He also portrayed Esteban Navarro, a recurring antagonist, in the tenth season of CSI: Miami.

Plays

Television

Honours

• 2000 TVyNovelas Award for Best Young Lead Actor - "Mujeres engañadas"
• 2000 TVyNovelas Award for Best Male Revelation - "Mujeres engañadas"
• 2007 Premios Juventud - "Can He Act or What?" Award for "Goal! (film)" (nominated)
• 2008 Premios Juventud - "Can He Act or What?" Award for "Sex and Breakfast" (nominated)
• 2010 Premios Juventud - "Can He Act or What?" Award for "From Mexico With Love" (nominated)

References

External links

• Kuno Becker at the Internet Movie Database
• Kuno Becker at the Telenovela Database
• Disney's Cars Yahoo Mexico