Alejandro "Álex" Pina Calafi (born 22 June 1967) is a Spanish screenwriter, television producer, and former journalist, known for creating the Spanish heist drama series La Casa De Papel (Money Heist) (2017–2021) and the prison drama series Vis a Vis (Locked Up) (2015–2020). His other shows include Los hombres de Paco (2005–2010; 2021), El embarcadero (2019–2020), White Lines (2020), Sky Rojo (2021–2023), and Billionaires' Bunker (2025). The Hollywood Reporter listed Pina in their "Top International Showrunners of 2019".
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Biography
Born in Pamplona in 1967, Pina began his career as a journalist, working with publications such as El Diario Vasco and Diario de Mallorca and later in the Europa Press Agency.
Between 1993 and 1996, he worked as a scriptwriter and editor for Videomedia until joining the production company Globomedia in 1996. In 1997, he started his career as a screenwriter in the television series Más que amigos and Periodistas. He later created, executive produced, and wrote for Spanish series such as Los Serrano (2003–2008), Los hombres de Paco (2005–2010; 2021), El barco (2011–2013), and Vis a Vis (Locked Up) (2015–2020). While at Globomedia, Pina founded Cangrejo Films with other creatives and producers and produced several films, including Fuga de cerebros (2009), Tres Metros Sobre el Cielo (2010), and Tengo ganas de ti (2012). He also directed and co-wrote the film Kamikaze (2014).
At the end of 2016, after the conclusion of Vis a Vis's second season, Pina left Globomedia and founded his own production company, Vancouver Media. Its first production was La Casa de Papel (Money Heist), which premiered on Antena 3 on 2 May 2017 with more than four million viewers. The series was distributed worldwide by Netflix and became the biggest success of Pina's career, leading to the signing of an exclusive contract with the streaming platform for the creation and production of an original series. In 2020, he created and co-produced White Lines. He also co-created and produced with Esther Martínez Lobato the television series Sky Rojo (2021–2013) and Berlin (2023–present), a prequel spin-off of Money Heist.