Introduction
Acting is a profession that isn’t exclusive to Hollywood. A lot of actors from outside of the United States have been able to make a world-wide known career thanks to their talent. Some of them even made it big due to their performances in music videos of popular bands. One of those actors is Laia Manzanares.
Early life and Education
Laia Manzanares Tomas was born on 30 March 1994, in Barcelona, Spain, where she spent most of her childhood with both of her parents and a brother called Guillermo.
Little is disclosed of her background, but it is known that she attended XXV Olympiad Institute, located near the Caixa Forum Museum. It was there that she learned to speak four languages fluently: Spanish, Catalan, French and English, which would prove to be very useful for her future career.
During the end of her high school years, she took acting classes at Collegi de Teatre, Barcelona, and her love of performance art and entertainment was proven when she started her acting career as a teen in Barcelona’s theatres.
Some of her first performances were in plays such as “Malnascuts”, “Odisseus” and “Temps Salvatge”.
Breakthrough
What really brought Laia fame were her astonishing hip-hop dancing skills, that she was able to flaunt in Tame Impala’s video from 2015 for the song “The Less I Know the Better”. She played a gorgeous cheerleader who dated a basketball player but then left him for the team’s gorilla mascot called Trevor (which can be discovered through the part of the lyrics: ‘She was holding hands with Trevor’). The video went viral, with many praising Laia’s skills as well as her looks.
This was the event that gave her career a push in the right direction, and made agents take notice.
Acting Career
Laia’s career jump-started after this in 2015, when she made her debut as Oksana in the TV series about a philosophy teacher at high school, “Merli”. Laia played a newbie Ukrainian student who was admired both by boys and girls from her school, because of her beauty and charm. Oksana quickly falls in one-sided love with another classmate and tries to win him over, but soon her story shifts and Oksana goes on a journey to find her birth mother from Ukraine.
She remained a regular in the show for two seasons until the series ended in 2018, and despite this being her first television role, she gained a lot of positive critiques. During this time, she also guested in comedy TV series “Cities” – which in Catalan means “dates” – that aired in 2016. In 2017, she played the role of Mary in “The Girl from the Song”
After “Merli” ended, she played a small role in 2018 TV drama sitcom “Killing the Father”, as well as in “What the Future Holds”, a crime thriller set in Barcelona during the 1960s.
She went on to perform in several TV movies, including “Vivafranca”, and a political thriller “The Candidate”. She starred as Ana in a romantic short “La Tierra Ilamando a Ana” alongside Javier Pereira in 2019, and during the same year appeared in TV series “Hache”, based upon a woman who was a victim of a heroin trafficking business happening in Barcelona during the ‘60s. She voice acted in another TV series, “Heavies Tendres”.
In 2016 Leia was a contestant in “El Gran Dictat”, a Catalan reality TV game show, and in 2018 was nominated for a Gaudi Award for her performance in “Sol Creixent”, in which she played her namesake, Laia, who was spending a weekend at the seaside together with her boyfriend and another couple, before emotions got the better of them.
Personal Life
Leia keeps her personal life private, and seems to be focusing primarily on her career.
As of March 2020, she has never been romantically linked publicly with anyone, male or female, thus her relationship status remains unknown. She stated that some of her hobbies include making Lego figures, horticulture and leather crafting. She is a devoted Christian and practices the Roman-Catholic faith. She is active on Instagram and Twitter, where she often shows her luxurious lifestyle, and has a rather large following on both of those platforms. She posted a picture of her unnamed father in 2017, for the third birthday of her Instagram profile.
Net Worth
Laia is a rising star, and her successful acting career has already earned her a hefty amount of money. She has fans all over the world, especially in Brazil and her home country, Spain. Her salary is not yet disclosed, but as of 2020, she has an estimated net worth of around $500,000.
Physical characteristics
Leia is a young woman with an oval face, big dark eyes and light brown to blonde hair. She is 5ft 6ins (168cm) tall, and has a slim build. It is often times said that she is one of the most gorgeous women currently on the Spanish acting scene.