Ivana was born in Barcelona, Spain. She graduated High School at The American School of Barcelona.She got her big break in 2006 when Guillermo Del Toro cast her as the lead in his critically acclaimed fantasy thriller “Pan’s Labyrinth.”” The role of Ofelia was originally intended for an eight-year-old girl, but the script was altered to accommodate Ivana (who was eleven at the time) due to her outstanding audition.Ivana was awarded the 2007 Goya Award for Best New Actress for her performance in “”Pan’s Labyrinth.”” In addition to her Goya Award, she received various awards including the Award for Best Newcomer by the Union of Spanish Actors, the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Young Actor and the Imagen Award for Best Actress.Before receiving great acclaim in “”Pan’s Labyrinth,”” Ivana had already appeared in a number of films. The most notable of these films were “”Fragile”” with Calista Flockhart and “”Romasanta”” alongside Julian Sands, both of which were supporting roles when she was only 9 and 10 years old.Ivana played her first American role in the feature film “”The New Daughter,”” where she starred opposite Kevin Costner. In 2015, she shot in New Zealand MTV’s television series “”The Shannara Chronicles”” – a story based on Terry Brook’s bestselling novel “”The Elfstones of Shannara.””While she is fully dedicated to her acting carrier, she is also undertaking Law studies.”
Ivana Baquero
Movies
Black Friday
On Thanksgiving night, a group of disgruntled toy store employees begrudgingly arrive for work to open the store at midnight for the busiest shopping day of the year. Meanwhile, an alien parasite crashes to Earth in a meteor. This group of misfits led by store manager Jonathan and longtime employee…
Fun Facts
She speaks Spanish, Catalan, and English.
Was chosen among 1,000 girls for the role of Ofelia for "Pan's Labyrinth"" (Pan's Labyrinth (2006)).
Youngest Spanish actress to win a Goya Award at only 12 years old for her performance in Pan's Labyrinth (2006).
In 2007 she was on the list of the 50 most beautiful published by the magazine ""People en Español"".
June 2009 Ranked #40 on theMovie-Fanatic.com Top 50 Hottest Young Actresses.
Along with costar Kevin Costner
Quotes
It's really rare to get to play such a powerful, resourceful female. In my case, obviously I just sort of ... I'm leaving my teenage years. I'm twenty-one at the moment, so most of what I'd done before were, obviously, kid roles. [Shannara Chronicles] was the most adult thing I'd done ever since. It was very empowering and very, very exciting to play this role that is so energetic, so dynamic, so cool.
When other kids were playing volleyball or basketball after school, I was shooting movies. It was my own personal after school activity that eventually became a job. I was very independent growing up, as I'm an only child. But sometimes it was hard at school. When I would leave for an extended time to work, upon returning social groups would have already been formed. But, in my heart, I was doing what I loved, so it was never traumatic.
[New Zealand] was a very calm and very positive atmosphere. Most of us weren't from New Zealand. We were from Spain, England, Australia, the States, so we all lived in the same hotel, which made us bond inevitably.
In real life, couples split, they have issues, there's trust issues, but when there is love and passion, you can work things through.
Whenever I was on a horse, I'd be super excited and super stoked the day before to do that. I would also say, because we were on a diet and we had to do our exercise and eat proper foods and everything, but we had this one cheat day every week. That day we could eat whatever we wanted to, so I would be very, very happy that day. I was always looking forward to that.
When you start in the industry so young, it's easy to take it for granted. It's hard to carry that passion into adulthood. Pan's Labyrinth led me onto a successful path. I've been so fortunate, and I never wanted to let that go.
I've always wanted to study, and when I turned 18, I was an actress. I wanted to do that, but then I thought if I want to study, it has to be now. I'm not going to want to study in six years, so I better do it now and see if it works out. So I ended up gearing towards law and continued [with it].
I play Eretria [on Shannara Chronicles], and she's a Rover on the show. Rovers are one of the few humans that inhabit the Four Lands, and she basically makes a living out of stealing. She lives sort of in the woods with her clan. But she comes from quite a dark background, so she wants to get away from all of that.
I really looked up to Jodie Foster and Natalie Portman, child actresses who went on to university and transitioned extremely well into adulthood.
[I'm] quite strong and perseverant in that sense because I've always set myself objectives like finishing school. I'm currently studying law.