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Leonor Varela is an award-winning actress. She played the title role in the 1999 television series Cleopatra, and the vampire princess Nyssa Damaskinos in the 2002 film Blade II.
She was born on 29 December 1972, in Santiago, Chile. Her parents are of Spanish-Greek & Syrian ancestry. She studied acting at the Niels Arestrup School, L’École du Passage, and Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris.
She first came to the attention of U.S. audiences when she starred in the title role of ABC’s acclaimed mini-series Cleopatra. She has since gone on to star in a number of major Hollywood motion pictures, including Blade II opposite Wesley Snipes, Tailor of Panama opposite Geoffrey Rush and Pierce Brosnan, among many others. She had a recurring guest lead in the popular Emmy-winning TV series Arrested Development and a guest starring role on Joss Whedon’s hit show Agents of Shield. Most recently the actress wrapped a lead role in the true crime thriller Captive with Kate Mara, David Oyelowo and Michael K. Williams.
Throughout her career she has drawn on this diverse background by taking on a stunningly wide array of foreign roles that have garnered critical acclaim and awards. In 2009 she starred in the Spanish language movie Sleep Dealer, which was nominated for “Best First Feature” at the Independent Spirit Awards. She was honored at the 23rd Annual Imagen Awards with “Best Supporting Actress” for Where God Left His Shoes and received Miami’s New Herald “Best Actress of the Year” award for her turn in Luis Mandoki’s Innocent Voices. Leonor Varela also starred opposite Jean Reno and Gerard Depardieu in the French comedy mega-hit Tais-Toi, which remained atop the box office in France for many weeks.
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