9 Most Famous Mexican Actors Who Have Achieved International Fame
Are you looking for the most famous Mexican actors who have achieved international fame?
Since the late 19th century, Mexican cinema has created quite a great number of actors and actresses. However, only a few did manage to penetrate the international scene. Lupe Vélez, Dolores del Río, Cantinflas, Anthony Quinn, and Salma Hayek are some of them.
RELATED READ: 9 Most Popular Mexican Actresses Who Have Achieved International Fame
In this list, we will tackle some of the contemporary talented Mexicans who have made their country proud by achieving global success in the movie and television industry.
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9 Most Popular Mexican Actors Who Have Achieved International Fame
Here is a list of the most popular Mexican actors who have achieved international fame in the recent decades.
1. Gael García Bernal
Best recognized for his performances in the films Y tu mamá también (2001), Bad Education (2004), The Motorcycle Diaries (as the young Che Guevara – 2004), and Babel (2006), Gael García Bernal is also the voice behind Héctor in the 2017 computer-animated fantasy film Coco.
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1978, acting runs in García Bernal’s blood. His father was a stage and TV actor who also directed films. His mother is an actress.
García Bernal has acted in films in Mexico, South America, United States, France, and Spain. He has been nominated to the Oscars six times. His role in the Amazon Studios TV series Mozart in the Jungle won him the Golden Globe in 2016.
García Bernal was listed in Time 100 most influential people in 2016. In 2020, he made it to The New York Times‘ list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.
2. Diego Luna
Playing opposite Gael García Bernal in the 2001 Mexican film Y tu mamá también, Diego Luna started a career on stage and in soap operas as a child before appearing in films. Luna and García Bernal have been family friends since infancy.
Y tu mamá también catapulted both actors to international stardom. They shared the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2002 for the said coming-of-age film.
Luna was born in Toluca and raised in Mexico City by his father who is heavily into theater and the arts, being an awarded scenic designer and lighting technician for both film and stage. His British mother died when Diego was a toddler.
Luna starred in a number of Hollywood films after the hit Y tu mamá también, including the 2002 American biographical drama film Frida and 2004 American comedy-drama The Terminal. In 2016, he played the role of Cassian Andor in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
3. Eugenio Derbez
Eugenio Derbez was born and raised in Mexico City, the son of Mexican actress Silvia Derbez. Derbez started out with roles as extras in Mexican telenovelas before his teens.
Derbez starred in many successful movies and soap operas in Mexico, making him one of the most sought-after Mexican comedic actors. His first non-comedy film, the 2007 La misma luna (English title: Under the Same Moon), was a box-office smash. In 2007, Derbez won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for the drama thriller Padre Nuestro (Our Father).
Derbez has appeared in numerous films and TV series including the 2011 comedy Jack and Jill alongside Adam Sandler, Al Pacino, and Katie Holmes; the 2013 comedy-drama Instructions Not Included (which he co-wrote, directed, and starred), and How to Be a Latin Lover (2017).
Eugenio Derbez is a father of four, three of whom are also in show business. He lives in Los Angeles where his film production company is based. Derbez has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
4. Demián Bichir
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in A Better Life (2011), Demián Bichir first starred in Mexican telenovelas before appearing in Hollywood films.
His other notable movies include Che (2008), where he played Fidel Castro, and the 2015 western film The Hateful Eight. He also starred in Alien: Covenant (2017), The Nun (2018), and Chaos Walking (2021).
Bichir was born in Torreón, in the Mexican state of Coahuila, to a famous family of actors. Outside acting, Bichir is also active in playing his part as an American Civil Liberties Union Ambassador of Immigration Rights.
5. Luis Gerardo Méndez
Born and raised in the central Mexican city of Aguascalientes, Luis Gerardo Méndez’ ticket to fame was his starring role in the 2013 Mexican dark comedy film Nosotros los Nobles (The Noble Family, alternately known as We Are the Nobles).
Méndez landed a role in the Cantinflas biopic in 2014. The following year, he co-produced and co-starred in Club de Cuervos, Netflix’s first ever Spanish-language original production.
Méndez went on to play roles in several American comedy films, including Murder Mystery (2019), Charlie’s Angels (2019), and Half Brothers (2020).
6. Adan Canto
Adan Canto became widely known for his role as Sunspot in the 2014 superhero movie X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Born in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico, Canto grew up riding horses in his grandfather’s ranch. He was 7 when he started singing on stage and 16 when he left home to pursue a career in music in the capital.
While in Mexico City, Canto began to act in numerous commercials until he was cast in a TV drama series called Estado de Gracia.
Prior to his Sunspot role in the X-Men franchise, Adan Canto made his debut role on American television on the first season of the Fox drama series, The Following.
Canto is an accomplished Mexican actor who has succeeded in making a name internationally, appearing in a number of American TV series and notable Hollywood films such as the 2020 drama Bruised opposite Halle Berry and Agent Game, a 2022 American spy action-thriller film along with Mel Gibson and Dermot Mulroney.
7. Kuno Becker
Born Eduardo Kuno Becker in Mexico City, Kuno Becker is an actor and film director who has worked in Mexican movies and soap operas, and also in American cinemas.
Best known for his role as Santiago Muñez in the 2005 sports drama film Goal!, Becker was a violinist before he shifted into professional acting at the age of 17. Kuno Becker is of mixed ethnicity, having German, Spanish, and Native American blood.
8. Diego Boneta
Born in Mexico City to a Mexican father and an American mother of Spanish and Puerto Rican descent, Diego Boneta grew up in the Mexican capital and Los Angeles, USA.
Boneta is an actor, singer, and producer who has gained international recognition after landing a role in the 2012 American jukebox musical comedy film Rock of Ages alongside Hollywood big names such as Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Alec Baldwin.
Boneta also starred in the 2018 Netflix biographical series Luis Miguel: The Series.
9. Adrián Alonso
Adrián Alonso is best known as the child actor who portrayed Zorro’s son in the 2005 Western swashbuckler hit The Legend of Zorro, starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Alonso started a career on TV at the age of 8. In 2004, he landed a starring role in the war drama Voces inocentes (Innocent Voices). His portrayal of Chele in this critically-acclaimed movie created such an impression that won him the coveted role of Joaquin de la Vega, the son of Zorro in the sequel to the 1998 box-office hit The Mask of Zorro. This was despite the fact that the young actor spoke no English.
After the Zorro film, Alonso continued to appear on TV. In 2007, he starred opposite comedian Eugenio Derbez in the indie drama La misma luna (Under the Same Moon), where he played the role of Carlitos, a young Mexican boy who crosses the US borders illegally to find his mother.
