Salma Hayek

BIOGRAPHY

Academy Award Nominee Salma Hayek has proven herself as a prolific actress, producer, and director, in both film and television. She received an Academy Award Nomination, a Golden Globe Nomination, a SAG Nomination, and a BAFTA Nomination for Best Actress for the title role in Julie Taymor's Frida.

Hayek has two films Slated for release in 2012. In July, she stars in Oliver Stone’s Savages, opposite John Travolta, Bencio del Toro and Blake Lively. She will also be seen in the comedy Here Comes The Boom opposite Kevin James, which will be released in October.

In 2010, she appeared in Adam Sandler's most successful film to date, Grown Ups, for which a sequel is in the works. And most recently, she lent her voice to the Academy Award nominated animated film, Puss In Boots, as Antonio Banderas’ love interest “Kitty.” She also starred in a Spanish film entitled La Chispa de la Vida, for which she received a Goya nomination for Best Actress.

Since she produced Frida, Hayek and her producing partner Jose Tamez have continued to develop, and produce mainstream projects that either draw on Latin themes or feature Latin talent, both in front of and behind the camera. She served as an Executive Producer on ABC's award-winning series Ugly Betty, starring America Ferrera, based on the enormously successful Colombian series Yo Soy Betty, La Fea. In 2001, she starred in and co-produced Showtime's In the Time of the Butterflies, for which she was nominated for a Broadcast Film Critics Association's Award, and in 2003, she directed, as well as produced an original movie for Showtime, The Maldonado Miracle, with Peter Fonda, Mare Winningham and Ruben Blades, for which she won the Daytime Emmy.

Hayek and Tamez are currently working on an animated feature based on Khalil Gibran's The Prophet, with filmmakers from around the world.

Noted for her acting career, Hayek has also dedicated much of her time to social activism. Hayek served as spokesperson for the Pampers/UNICEF partnership worldwide to help stop the spread of life-threatening maternal and neonatal tetanus. She has been very involved in raising funds and awareness for domestic violence related issues, and in 2005, she spoke in front the US Senate, encouraging its members to extend the Violence Against Women Act. In January 2006, the legislation was passed, ensuring that 3.9 billion dollars will be allocated to thousands of domestic violence crisis and intervention agencies throughout the US. Hayek has visited locations as far flung as the Arctic Circle, in an effort to bring attention to the impact of global warming on the lives of Inuit people, and Oslo, Norway, where she co-hosted the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo honoring Nobel laureate Mohamed el-Baradei and the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. She was also part of the One campaign that singer and activist Bono created, as well as a member of Global Green, and Youth Aids.

Born and raised in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, Hayek studied International Relations in college in Mexico. Her other film credits include Robert Rodriguez' Desperado and it's sequel Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Quentin Tarrentino's From Dusk Til Dawn, Stephen Soderburgh's Traffic, Fools Rush In, Spy Kids 3-D and Julie Taymor's Beatles musical, Across the Universe.