Ernesto Alterio was born on July 25, 1970 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is the son of actor Héctor Alterio and brother of actress Malena Alterio. Due to Héctor’s left-wing ideology, the family had to go into exile from Argentina when the coup occurred, shortly after Malena was born.
Before studying Dramatic Art, he had enrolled in Biology and later in History, not yet being clear about his true vocation. Together with other actors, such as Alberto San Juan, he founded a theater company, which immediately merged with that of the theater director Andrés Lima, and was renamed Animalario. With it they staged a large number of works, all of them very critical of today’s society, which led to Ernesto being cataloged as a protestor on the left and committed to his social environment.
He participated in small roles on television, in series such as “Full, please”, “Colegio Mayor” or “Thieves go to the office.”
In the cinema he also began with the interpretation of small roles, in films like My name is shadow or You will die in Chafarinas. His first leading role was in 1998, with the tape “The barbarian years”, by Fernando Colomo, with whom he would soon shoot El cuarteto de La Habana. This last film earned him an Oscar nomination for best new actor.
Ernesto Alterio’s career was already consolidated. He continued to participate in films, all of them among the most prestigious in Spanish cinema at the time. In 2002 he obtained another great success with the film The Other Side of the Bed, with which he was a candidate for the Actors Union Award. And, after a year, he was also a candidate for the Fotogramas de Plata and the Goya Award for his role in the film “Días de fútbo”.
Among Ernesto Alterio’s extensive filmography, we can highlight other feature films, such as “Thursday’s widows”, “Rivals”, The method, “Dupes”, “Insomnia” or “Two by two”.