Early life

Vega was born in Seville to a homemaker mother and a retired bullfighter father. Vega's younger sister has performed as a flamenco dancer. Vega has described her family as "traditional" and Catholic. She took her stage name from her grandmother. She decided to become an actress after attending a performance of Federico García Lorca's La casa de Bernarda Alba at the age of 15. After completing compulsory education at 16, she was accepted at the prestigious Centro Andaluz de Teatro stage school. After two years at the stage school and two more years studying journalism, Vega moved to Madrid.

Screen career

Vega made her television debut in the Spanish TV series, Menudo es mi padre, which starred rumba singer El Fary. After appearing in two other series in 1997—Más que amigos and teen drama Compañeros—she went on to the silver screen in 1999 in Zapping. The same year she also had a minor role in the David Menkes movie I Will Survive (Sobreviviré) alongside Emma Suárez, Juan Diego Botto and a cameo from Boy George.

Vega found success in 1999's 7 Vidas. The series was billed as a Spanish Friends and went on to become one of the country's best-loved domestic sitcoms. Vega played Laura, a perky Andalusian girl who had come to stay with David, who had recently come out of a coma. The series was broadcast on Telecinco and finished on 12 April 2006, albeit without Vega.

In 2001, she starred in Julio Médem's film Sex and Lucia, which brought her to the attention of a larger audience. She appeared in a supporting role in the 2004 James L. Brooks film Spanglish opposite Adam Sandler. In 2006, she co-starred with Morgan Freeman in the independent film 10 Items or Less. In 2008, she co-starred with Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, and Scarlett Johansson in The Spirit. In 2011, Vega had a role in Michele Placido's film Vallanzasca -The Angels of Evil.

Vega also works as a model; she is signed to 1/One Management in New York City. On May 2011, Vega replaced Penélope Cruz as the face for L'Oreal Spain.

Personal life

Vega and her Venezuelan husband, Orson Salazar, had their first child, son Orson, on 2 May 2007. Her second child, daughter Ava, was born on 17 July 2009. Their third child, son Lenon, was born on 13 August 2010.

Filmography

Year	Movie	Role	Notes and Awards
1997	Más allá del jardín
1998	Perdón, perdón	María
1999	Zapping	Elvira
	Sobreviviré	Azafata
2000	Nadie conoce a nadie	Ariadna
	El chico en la puerta (short film)
2001	Lucía y el sexo	Lucía
	Sólo mía	Angela
2002	Hable con ella	Amparo
	El otro lado de la cama	Sonia
	Novo	Isabelle
2003	Carmen	Carmen
2004	Di que sí	Estrella Cuevas
	Spanglish	Flor Moreno
2006	10 Items or Less	Scarlet
	Los Borgia	Caterina Sforza
	Fade to Black	Lea Padovani
2007	Theresa: The Body of Christ	Santa Teresa de Jesús
	The Lark Farm	Nunik
2008	The Human Contract	Michael
	The Spirit	Plaster of Paris
2009	Not Forgotten	Amaya
	The Six Wives of Henry Lefay	Veronica
	Triage	Elena Morales
	Burning Palms	Blanca Juarez
	Wanted: Weapons of Fate	Araña	video game
2010	Angel of Evil	Antonella D'Agostino
	Castro's Daughter	Alina Fernandez
2011	The Flower of Evil	Antonella D'Agostino
	Cat Run	Catalina "Cat" Rona
2012	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted	the Andalusian Triplets (Esmeralda, Esperanza and Ernestina)	Voice
	Mary of Nazareth	Mary Magdalene
2013	I'm So Excited	Alba
2014	Grace of Monaco	Maria Callas
	Não Pare na Pista - A Melhor História de Paulo Coelho	Luiza
	Kill the Messenger	Coral Baca
2015-	Big Time in Hollywood, FL	Isabella Delgado
2015	Beautiful & Twisted	Narcy Novak
2016	All Roads Lead to Rome		Post-production

Awards and nominations

Premios Goya

• 2001, Best actress in a leading role, Sólo mía, NOMINATION
• 2001, Best breakthrough actress performance, Lucía y el sexo, WON

Premios Unión de Actores

• 2001, Unión de Actores Award best actress|Best actress in a leading role, Sólo mía, NOMINATION
• 2001, Premio Unión de Actores best breakthrough actress performance|Best breakthrough actress performance, Lucía y el sexo, NOMINATION

Anexo

Fotogramas de Plata|Fotogramas de Plata

• 2003, Best actress, Carmen, NOMINATION
• 2002, Best actress, El otro lado de la cama, NOMINATION
• 2001, Best actress, Lucía y el sexo and Sólo mía, NOMINATION

European Awards

• 2003, Viewers award best actress, Carmen, Nomination

Cannes Festival

• 2001, Trofeo Chopard best breakthrough performance, Lucía y el sexo, WON

Imagen Foundation

• 2004, Best actress, Spanglish, WON

Phoenix Film Critics Society

• 2004, Best breakthrough performance, Spanglish, WON

Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos

• 2001, Best actress, Sólo mía, WON

Sant Jordi Awards

• 2001, Best Spanish Act, Lucía y el sexo and Sólo mía]], WON

Ondas Award

• 2001, Best actress, Lucía y el sexo, WON

[ Source: Wikipedia ]