Juan Diego Botto Rota (born 29 August 1975) is an Argentine-Spanish film, stage and television actor.
Born in Argentina, he moved to Spain together with his mother (the actress and acting coach Cristina Rota) in 1978. Following early film appearances as a child actor, he landed a breakthrough role in the 1995 film Stories from the Kronen. He has since starred in films such as Martín (Hache) (1997), Plenilune (2000), Broken Silence (2001), Obaba (2005), Go Away from Me (2006) and Ismael (2013). He has also worked as a stage director and playwright and debuted as a film director with the 2022 social drama-thriller On the Fringe.
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Early life
Botto was born on 29 August 1975 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, son of Diego Fernando Botto Alduncín and Cristina Rota. His parents were both actors. His father (a member of the Peronist Youth and Montoneros) was kidnapped and murdered in 1977 during the Argentine Dirty War. In 1978, together with his mother and older sister María, he moved to Madrid, Spain, where his little sister, Nur Al Levi, was born. His sisters are both actresses. His mother taught acting classes out of their apartment, before creating her own academy.
Botto attended high school in New York and lived there for two years.
Career
Botto studied acting at the school founded by his mother in Madrid, which later became the Center for New Creators, based in the Sala Mirador. Later he moved to New York to continue his studies under the direction of Uta Hagen.
Botto's first film appearance was at the age of eight in the film Game of Power, by Fausto Canel (1983).
During the 1980s, Botto played small roles in films and appeared in the 1990 American television series Zorro. In 1992, he landed a role as the son of Christopher Columbus in the film 1492: Conquest of Paradise, by Ridley Scott. Three years later he starred in the film Stories from the Kronen, an adaptation by Montxo Armendáriz of the novel of the same name, in which he achieved great success and popularity.
Botto's role in the 1999 film Sobreviviré (I Will Survive), about a woman who falls in love with a man who, unknown to her, is homosexual, got him more national and international recognition.
Botto's career has included films such as Martín (Hache), by the director Adolfo Aristarain; Broken Silence, by Montxo Armendáriz, Plenilunio, by Imanol Uribe, Asfalto, by Daniel Calparsoro; Go Away from Me, by Víctor García León; Todo lo que tú quieras, by Achero Mañas; as well as several works abroad, such as The Dancer Upstairs, directed by John Malkovich and starring Javier Bardem; Bordertown, by Gregory Nava, starring Jennifer Lopez; The Anarchist's Wife, by Marie Noëlle and Peter Sehr; and El Greco, by Yannis Smaragdis, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Cairo Film Festival in 2008.
In his professional career he has always combined cinema and theater. He is the coordinator of the Sala Mirador theater.
In 2005, he directed the play El privilegio de ser perro (The Privilege of Being a Dog), written by himself, about the tough life immigrants are subjected to while trying to sneak into and live in a new country. In December 2008, and after a tour throughout Spain, Hamlet premiered at the Theatre of María Guerrero in Madrid, which he directed and starred in, along with José Coronado, Marta Etura and Nieve de Medina, among others. He is also the author of the plays Despertares y celebraciones, directed by his mother Cristina Rota, and The Last Night of the Plague, directed by Víctor García León.
Personal life
Botto currently lives in Madrid with his wife, Spanish journalist and writer Olga Rodríguez. They have a daughter, Salma. He is also active in politics, protesting the 2003 war in Iraq and taking part in a support group for fellow children of the disappeared.
Filmography
Music videos
Somos Anormales (2017, music video)
Director
"Doble moral" (segment of the collective film ¡Hay motivo!; 2004)
"Gourmet" (episode of the streaming series Relatos con-fin-a-dos; 2020)
En los márgenes (2022)
Theater
El privilegio de ser perro (2008)
El ultimo dia de la peste (2010)
Invisibles (2014)
Una noche Sin Luna (2021)
