Carlos Bardem
Carlos Encinas Bardem is a Spanish actor and writer. He is often cast in "tough guy" roles, if not outright villains. In addition to his native Spain, he has worked in film and television in Latin America and the United States. He has received three Goya Award nominations, both in acting and screenwriting categories, as well as six Actors and Actresses Union Award nominations.
Since making his film debut in Not Love, Just Frenzy in 1996, he has featured in pictures such as La zona, Cell 211, Scorpion in Love, and González: falsos profetas. His television work includes credits in series such as La embajada, Club de cuervos, El señor de los cielos, El Cid, Queer You Are, 30 Coins, and The [Chosen One (2023 TV series)|The Chosen One].
He has also penned several novels, displaying a penchant for historical fiction.
Life and career
Carlos Encinas Bardem was born in Madrid on 7 March 1963. He is the son of actress Pilar Bardem and the elder brother of actors Mónica and Javier Bardem. He earned a licentiate degree in history from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a diploma in foreign relations. He made his feature film debut in Not Love, Just Frenzy, co-helmed by his cousin Miguel Bardem. A year later, he played a part in Álex de la Iglesia's film Perdita Durango, which starred his brother Javier.In 1999, Bardem published his first novel, Muertes ejemplares, which was followed by Buziana o el peso del alma.
File:Festival de Málaga 2021 - Carlos Bardem.jpg|thumb|upright|Bardem during the presentation of Queer You Are at the 2021 Málaga Film Festival
He won an Actors and Actresses Union Award for Best New Actor for his performance in the Spanish-Mexican co-production La zona.
His portrayal of Apache in Cell 211 earned him a nomination for the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 2010, he began a relationship with Cecilia Gessa.
Bardem adapted alongside Santiago Zannou his own novel about the genesis of violence Alacrán enamorado to screen. He also featured in the film, titled Scorpion in Love, as a boxing coach, and won nominations to the Goya both for Best Adapted Screenplay and for Best Supporting Performance. He described his character as "a deeply human and therefore imperfect character, who lives in permanent defeat, but who finds reasons to get up".
He portrayed evangelical pastor and charlatan Elías in Mexican thriller González: falsos profetas, receiving a nomination for the Ariel Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2015, he appeared in Manolo Caro's comedy Elvira I Will Give You [My Life But I'm Using It] playing Gustavo, the husband of Cecilia Suárez's lead character Elvira. Continuing his work in Mexico, he played a football agent in comedy-drama series Club de Cuervos, which debuted on Netflix in 2015.
Bardem played the part of Benedicto, a mentor of the Order of Assassins, in the action film Assassin's Creed.
In 2018, he starred in Colombian crime film Pickpockets in the role of Chucho, a mentor of young pickpockets.
In 2019, Bardem published his sixth novel, Mongo blanco, which deals with 19th-century slave trader Pedro Blanco. Bardem reported that the novel's main theme "is evil, evil as a consequence of the evil exercise of power and extreme inequality".
Bardem played the villainous Count Flaín of León, an antagonist to Ruy Díaz de Vivar, in the Prime Video series El Cid, set in 11th-century Iberia.
He featured as the authoritarian father of in the former's autofictional series Queer You Are, in a role in which Bardem's face is not displayed onscreen. Resuming collaboration with Álex de la Iglesia, he played a "narco-satanic" cardinal in the HBO series 30 Coins.
His 2023 novel Badaq is a moral fable and criticism of the Spanish empire dealing with the plight of an Indonesian female rhinoceros captured in the island of Pawu and taken to Madrid in the 16th century.
Views
Bardem is committed to left-wing positions. He has sided in favour of the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people and has criticised the inaction of the Spanish political class in the matter since 1975. In the buildup to the 2011 Spanish general election, he lent public support to the electoral list of United Left.In July 2025, Bardem signed a letter to the Government of Spain along with over 1,200 professionals demanding an immediate and comprehensive embargo of arms and defense material on Israel by means of a Royal Decree-Law, personally adding that "culture that does not denounce is collaborationist, culture must always be rebellious and critical”.