Gael García Bernal

Gael García Bernal is a Mexican actor and filmmaker. He is known for his performances in the films Amores perros, Y tu mamá también, Bad Education, The Motorcycle Diaries, Babel, Coco, Old, Cassandro and Magellan. On television, he portrayed music conductor Rodrigo De Souza in the series Mozart in the Jungle, and starred as the titular character in the Disney+ special Werewolf by Night.
García Bernal was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of a young Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries in 2005, and in 2016 won his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy for Mozart in the Jungle. He and fellow actor Diego Luna founded the production company Canana Films in Mexico City. In 2016, Time magazine named him in the annual Time 100 most influential people list. In 2020, The New York Times ranked him No. 25 in its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.

WWW gaelonline.com 𝕏 GaelGarciaB IG gaelgarciab THR gaelgarciab

Early life

García Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and José Ángel García, an actor and director. His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was young. He started acting at just one year old and spent most of his teen years starring in telenovelas. García Bernal and frequent collaborator Diego Luna were friends from childhood in Mexico City.
When he was fourteen, García Bernal taught indigenous people in Mexico to read, often working with the Huichol people. At the age of fifteen, he took part in peaceful demonstrations in support of the Zapatista uprising of 1994.
He began studying philosophy at UNAM, Mexico's national university but, during a prolonged student strike, he decided to take a sabbatical to travel around Europe. He then moved to London, and became the first Mexican accepted to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Bernal also attended the European Graduate School toward a master's in media and communication.

Career

After García Bernal's success in soap operas, Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu offered García Bernal a part in his feature directorial debut, Amores perros. The film won rave reviews, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
His next role was Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también, which was a crossover success into American markets and gained him notice on the international stage, becoming the second-highest grossing Spanish language film in the United States. The next year, García Bernal went on to portray Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara in the 2002 TV miniseries Fidel and the morally troubled Father Amaro in the Mexican box-office record-breaker El crimen del Padre Amaro. García Bernal again portrayed Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries, an adaptation of a journal the 23-year-old Guevara wrote about his travels across South America. The film broke the box office record set 3 years prior by Y tu mamá también, and garnered Bernal a BAFTA nomination in 2005 for Best Performance by an Actor.
He also did some theatre work, during this time, including a 2005 production of Bodas de Sangre, by Federico García Lorca, in the Almeida Theatre in London. García Bernal has worked for acclaimed directors including González Iñárritu, Pedro Almodóvar, Walter Salles, Alfonso Cuarón, Michel Gondry, and Iciar Bollaín, among others. He has taken on roles in English-language films, including the Gondry-directed The Science of Sleep and The King, for which he earned rave reviews.
García Bernal directed his first feature film, Déficit which was released in 2007. He was cast in the 2008 film Blindness, an adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by José Saramago, winner of the Nobel Prize, about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. As in the novel, the characters have only descriptions, no names or histories; while director Fernando Meirelles said some actors were intimidated by the concept of playing such characters, With Gael,' he said, 'I never think about the past. I just think what my character wants. García Bernal again paired with Diego Luna in Rudo y Cursi directed by Carlos Cuarón.
García Bernal and Diego Luna own Canana Films. The company recently joined with Golden Phoenix Productions to produce a number of television documentaries about the unsolved murders of more than 300 women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. In May 2010, García Bernal did a cameo appearance as himself playing Cristiano Ronaldo in Ronaldo: The Movie for the Nike advertisement, Write the Future.
In 2010, he co-directed with Marc Siver four short films in collaboration with Amnesty International. The tetralogy, called "Los Invisibles", is about migrants from Central America in Mexico, their journey and risks, their hopes, and what they can contribute to Mexico, the US and the world. He directed the movies, did the interviews and also narrates the four short movies. He starred in Even the Rain, Spain's official entry for the 2011 Academy Awards.
García Bernal narrated Human Planet for Hispanic audiences, which premiered on Discovery en Español on 25 April 2011 and aired on Discovery Channel in Latin America on 12 May. For the third time García Bernal appeared with Diego Luna in the American Spanish-language comedy film Casa de mi padre, opposite Will Ferrell, where he played a feared drug lord. García Bernal's next projects included a film adaptation of José Agustín's Ciudades Desiertas and the Jon Stewart directorial biopic Rosewater, in which he portrayed Maziar Bahari to widespread critical acclaim. He was set to star in the 20th Century Fox reboot Zorro film called Zorro Reborn. The script is by Glen Gers, Lee Shipman, and Brian McGeevy.
In April 2014, he was announced as a member of the main competition jury at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. In June 2014, he began production as the star of the dramatic comedy Zoom, directed by Pedro Morelli. In 2014, he was cast in the lead role of Rodrigo de Souza in the Amazon Studios comedy-drama television series Mozart in the Jungle. His performance in the show was met with rave reviews, earning him a Golden Globe Award in 2016.
In 2016, he starred in two movies that were submitted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Desierto and Neruda. In 2017, he was announced as a member of the U.S. Dramatic Jury at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. That same year, he provided the voice of Héctor, an undead trickster and one of the main protagonists of the Pixar animated film Coco.
García Bernal founded The Ambulante Documentary Film Festival, which works to bring documentary films to places where they are rarely shown, and helped to create the Amnesty International Short Documentary Series Los Invisibles. For this work, he was awarded the Washington Office on Latin America's Human Rights Award in 2011.
In October 2019, García Bernal and Diego Luna announced they were joining the Creative Advisory Board for TV and Film development company EXILE Content along with Adam Grant.
In 2021, García Bernal starred in the M. Night Shyamalan thriller Old. In November 2021, Bernal was cast in the Disney+ special Werewolf by Night by Marvel Studios, based on the comics character of the same name.
In 2024, he starred alongside close friend and frequent collaborator Diego Luna in the Hulu original miniseries La Máquina as the eponymous character.
In 2025, García Bernal starred as Ferdinand Magellan in the epic historical drama film Magellan, which was directed by Lav Diaz; the film was an international co-production between the Philippines, Spain, Portugal, Taiwan, and France. The film premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and was announced as the Philippines' official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards.

Personal life

García Bernal and Argentine actress Dolores Fonzi met on the set of Private Lives in 2001. On 8 January 2009 their son was born in Madrid, Spain. Their daughter was born on 4 April 2011 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As of 2015 he divides his time between Buenos Aires and Mexico City.
He has been in a relationship with Mexican journalist Fernanda Aragonés since 2019. They had a child on 30 September 2021.
He has described himself as "culturally Catholic but spiritually agnostic".

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	De tripas, corazón	Martín	Short film
2000	Amores perros	Octavio
2000	Cerebro	Iván	Short film
2001	Don't Tempt Me	Davenport
2001	The Last Post	José Francisco	Short film
2001	Vidas privadas	Gustavo "Gana" Bertolini
2001	Y tu mamá también	Julio Zapata
2001	El ojo en la nuca	Pablo Urrutia	Short film
2002	Fidel	Ernesto "Che" Guevara
2002	I'm with Lucy	Gabriel
2002	The Crime of Father Amaro	Padre Amaro
2003	Cuba Libre	Ricky
2003	Dot the I	Kit Winter
2004	Bad Education	Ángel / Juan / Zahara
2004	The Motorcycle Diaries	Ernesto "Che" Guevara
2005	The King	Elvis Valderez
2006	Babel	Santiago
2006	The Science of Sleep	Stéphane
2007	Déficit	Cristobal	Also director and producer
2007	The Past	Rímini
2008	8		Director, writer and producer; Segment: "The Letter"
2008	Blindness	King of Ward 3
2008	Rudo y Cursi	Tatto
2009	Sin Nombre		Producer
2009	Mammoth	Leo Vidales
2009	The Limits of Control	Mexican
2010	Los Invisibles
2010	Letters to Juliet	Victor
2010	Even the Rain	Sebastián
2010	José and Pilar	Himself	Documentary
2011	Miss Bala		Producer
2011	A Little Bit of Heaven	Julian Goldstein
2011	Casa de mi padre	Onza
2011	The Loneliest Planet	Alex
2012	No	René Saavedra
2012	Vamps	Diego Bardem
2013	Paradise	-	Producer
2013	Who is Dayani Cristal?	Himself	Documentary
2014	The Ardor	Kaí
2014	Cesar Chavez	Himself	Cameo; Also producer
2014	Rosewater	Maziar Bahari
2015	The Empty Classroom	Narrator	Documentary; Also producer
2015	Desierto	Moises
2015	Zoom	Edward Deacon
2015	Eva Doesn't Sleep	Emilio Eduardo Massera
2016	Madly		Director and writer; Segment: "The Love of My Life"
2016	Neruda	Oscar Peluchoneau
2016	Salt and Fire	Dr. Fabio Cavani
2016	You're Killing Me Susana	Eligio
2017	If You Saw His Heart	Daniel
2017	Coco	Héctor Rivera
2018	The Kindergarten Teacher	Simon
2018	Museum	Juan Nuñez	Also executive producer
2018	The Accused	Mario Elmo
2019	Birders		Executive producer
2019	Chicuarotes		Director
2019	Ema	Gastón
2019	It Must Be Heaven	Himself
2019	Wasp Network	Gerardo Hernández
2021	Old	Guy Cappa
2022	This One Summer	Thiago
2023	Cassandro	Cassandro
2023	The Mother	Hector Álvarez
2024	Another End	Sal
2025	Holland	Dave Delgado
2025	Magellan	Ferdinand Magellan
2025	Zero A. D.	Joachim	In production
TBA	The Ballad of the Phoenix	King Terrowyn	In production
TBA	Nada Entre Los Dos	TBA	Post-production
TBA	Monkey Hill	TBA	Post-Production
TBA	The End of It	TBA	In Production

Awards

Ariel Award

Year	Category	Title	Result	Ref
2001	Best Actor (Mejor Actor)	Amores Perros	Won
2017	Best Actor (Mejor Actuación Masculina)	You're Killing Me Susana	Nomitated
2019	Best Actor	Museo	Nomitated

BAFTA Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result	Ref
2005	Best Actor	The Motorcycle Diaries	Nomitated
2006	Rising Star		Nomitated

Cannes Film Festival

Year	Category	Title	Result	Ref
2003	Chopard Trophy		Won
2007	Caméra d'Or	Déficit	Nomitated

Golden Globe Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result	Ref
2016	Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy	Mozart in the Jungle	Won
2017	Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy	Mozart in the Jungle	Nomitated

Goya Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result	Ref
2002	Best Supporting Actor	Don't Tempt Me	Nomitated	-

Other honors

Year	Ceremony	Category	Title	Result
2000	Chicago International Film Festival	Best Actor	Amores perros	Won
2001	El Heraldo de México	Best Actor	Y Tu Mamá También	Nomitated
2001	Venice Film Festival	Marcello Mastroianni Award	Y Tu Mamá También	Won
2002	Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain	Best Supporting Actor	Don't Tempt Me	Nomitated
2003	Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Most Promising Performer	The Crime of Father Amaro, ''Y Tu Mamá También	Nomitated
2003	Chlotrudis Awards	Best Actor	Y Tu Mamá También	Nomitated
2005	ACE Awards New York	Best Actor	The Motorcycle Diaries	Nomitated
2005	Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain	Best Actor	Bad Education	Nomitated
2005	Chlotrudis Awards	Best Actor	Bad Education	Won
2006	Awards Circuit Community Awards	Best Cast Ensemble	Babel	Nomitated
2007	Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards	Best Acting Ensemble	Babel	Nomitated
2007	Alma Awards	Outstanding Actor – Motion Picture	Babel	Nomitated
2007	Chlotrudis Awards	Best Actor	The Science of Sleep	Nomitated
2009	Cinema Brazil Grand Prize	Best Supporting Actor	Blindness	Nomitated
2009	Premios Oye!	Popular Breakthrough of the Year	Rudo y Cursi	Won
2009	Premios Oye!	Best theme for a film	Rudo y Cursi	Nomitated
2009	Mayahuel de Plata Awards	Achievement Award	Himself	Won
2010	Premios Juventud	Can He Act or What?	Rudo y Cursi	Nomitated
2012	Abu Dhabi Film Festival	Best Actor	No	Won
2013	Cork International Film Festival	Audience Award	Who is Dayani Cristal?	Won
2013	Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Actor	No	Nomitated
2014	Chlotrudis Awards	Best Actor	No''	Nomitated

In January 2026 he was appointed as Officer of the French Legion of Honor by the French Government.