Early life

Bichir was born at Torreon, Mexico, the son of actors Alejandro Bichir (Alejandro Bichir Batres) and Maricruz Nájera (María de la Cruz Nájera Botello). Demian began his career in the theater and became a member of the National Theater Company at the age of 13, performing Shakespeare, Valle-Inclan, O'Neill, Dostoyevsky, Simon and Shaffer, among others. His mastery of the greats at a young age garnered him several awards from the Mexican Association of Theater Critics. The following year he obtained a role in his first movie, the American production Choices of the Heart. He got his first starring character in the Telenovela El Rincon de los Prodigios where he acts as a stranger who performs miracles in front of the people confronting the corrupt authorities and the church.

Career

Bichir continued his acting roles in telenovelas with film productions of Mexico, Spain and the United States. After a long retirement of the Mexican telenovelas in favor of a film career, he returned to TV Azteca and played an honest detective who tries to tackle corruption and drug problems in Mexico in the telenovela Nada Personal. His performance led him to act as the same detective in Con Toda El Alma.

Mexican movie breakout

His film Sexo, pudor y lágrimas (1999) broke box-office records in Mexico becoming the #1 film in the history of Mexican cinema. He performed one of the main characters and brought him sufficient praise to earn him the Ariel. The film brought a lot of attention to him and to his brothers. They acted in so many films that in the MTV Movie Awards-México a special category was created: "Mejor Bichir en una Película" ("Best Bichir in a movie"). He earned this award for the 2003 film Bendito infierno (Holy Hell or Don't Tempt Me), in which he co-starred with Victoria Abril, Penélope Cruz and Gael García Bernal.

United States

He starred in the American film In the Time of the Butterflies (2001) with Salma Hayek, based on the real life of a group of sisters that fought against the government of a Dominican dictator. Later, he got some recognition when he depicted Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh's biopic Che (2008) on the life of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara.

He was exposed to a wider American audience with his recurring role as Esteban Reyes, the corrupt mayor of Tijuana and love interest of Nancy Botwin from season four to seven in Showtime's Weeds.

Bichir found mainstream U.S. work following his critically acclaimed performance as Carlos Galindo in the 2011 drama A Better Life, which garnered him nominations for the Independent Spirit Award and Screen Actors Guild Award. On 24 January 2012, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in A Better Life. His nomination came as a shock to Mexican and American audiences alike. He is the first male Mexican actor to receive this nomination since Anthony Quinn. Though Bichir failed to win the award, he followed it up with roles in the major American releases Savages, The Heat, and Machete Kills. In 2013, he began starring in the FX drama television series The Bridge as Detective Marco Ruiz.

Bichir made his film directorial debut, Refugio, which was released in 2016. In February 2016, Bichir was cast in Alien: Covenant, the second installment of the Alien prequel series.

Political activism

Bichir is an ACLU Ambassador for Immigration Rights.

Personal life

When Bichir was 22, he moved to New York City with his ex-girlfriend in order to get into the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. On a brief period, he learned English and started working at the Rosa Mexicano Restaurant. At Los Angeles, he failed to land in any acting roles and returned to Mexico, where he found great success. Since 2011, Bichir has been in a relationship with actress Stefanie Sherk.

Bichir married singer, Lisset Gutiérrez and divorced in 2003. He stated that he finds long-term commitment difficult. He had a short-lived relationship which led to the birth of his daughter, Gala, in May 2011 in Spain. He remains involved in the child's life.

Demian holds dual Mexican and American citizenship. Bichir resides in Los Angeles and Mexico City.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977	Rina	Juanito
1982	Vivir enamorada	Nacho	Episode: #1.1
1983	Cuando los hijos se van	Ricardo	Episode: #1.1
1983	Choices of the Heart	Armando	Television film
1984	Los años felices	Tomas	Episode: #1.1
1988	El rincón de los prodigios	Monchito
1994	Mujer, Casos de la Vida Real		2 episodes
1995	Lazos de Amor	Valente Segura	Episode: #1.1
1996	Nada personal	Comandante Alfonso Carbajal	Episode: #1.1
2001	In the Time of the Butterflies	Manuel 'Manolo' Tavárez Justo
2008	Capadocia	Carlos	3 episodes
2008	Weeds	Esteban Reyes	27 episodes
2013-2014	The Bridge	Detective Marco Ruiz	26 episodes

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Hotel Colonial	Young Hotel Clerk
1989	Rojo amanecer	Jorge
1993	Miroslava	Ricardo
1995	Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto	Omar
1996	Solo	Rio
1997	Perdita Durango	Catalina
1999	Sexo, pudor y lágrimas	Tomás
2001	Sin noticias de Dios	Manny
2007	Fuera del cielo	Everardo Sánchez
2007	American Visa	Mario Alvarez
2008	Che	Fidel Castro
2010	Hidalgo: La historia jamás contada	Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla
2011	The Runaways	Ernesto Cordoba
2011	A Better Life	Carlos Galindo
2012	Savages	Alex
2012	El Santos vs. La Tetona Mendoza	Cerdo Gutiérrez (voice)
2013	The Heat	Hale
2013	Dom Hemingway	Mr. Fontaine
2013	Machete Kills	Mendez the Madman
2014	Death in Buenos Aires	Inspector Chávez
2015	The Hateful Eight	Bob, "The Mexican"
2016	Low Riders		Filming
2017	Alien: Covenant		Filming

Dubbing roles

• The Little Mermaid - Eric, Louis
• Jetsons the Movie - Apollo Blue
• Aladdin - Aladdin
• The Road to El Dorado - Tulio

Accolades

Award	Category	Work	Result
Ariel Awards	Best Actor	La vida conyugal	Nominated
Ariel Awards	Best Actor	Hasta morir	Won
Ariel Awards	Best Actor	Sexo, pudor y lágrimas	Nominated
MTV Movie Awards	Best Bichir in a Film	Sin noticias de Dios	Won
Ariel Awards	Best Actor	Hidalgo: La historia jamás contada	Nominated
Academy Awards	Best Actor	A Better Life	Nominated
ALMA Awards	Favorite Movie Actor		Nominated
Independent Spirit Awards	Best Male Lead		Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role		Nominated
ALMA Awards	Favorite Movie Actor: Supporting Role	Savages	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]