Fernando Colunga

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Colunga and the second or maternal family name is Olivares.

Fernando Colunga Olivares (pronounced [feɾˈnando koˈluŋɡa oliˈβaɾes]) (born March 3, 1965) is a Mexican actor best known for his work in Mexican telenovelas.

Fernando Colunga
Born	Fernando Colunga Olivares
Citizenship	Mexico United States [1]
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1989 present
Website	www.colungateam.com

Colunga gained international fame for playing Luis Fernando de la Vega in the Mexican soap opera Maria la del Barrio. He is also known for his roles as Manuel Fuentes-Guerra in the historical drama set in the Mexican post-independence period of the mid-19th century, Real love,^[2][3] and for playing Jesús García in Porque el amor manda. He received his drama education at Centro de Educación Artística de Televisa (CEA) in Mexico City.

Career

Colunga worked as an actor in 1988, when he debuted twice as Eduardo Yañez's stuntman in the soap opera Dulce desafío. After that, he decided to start his acting career and enrolled in the Centro de Educación Artística de Televisa in 1990. In his early career, he was known to many audiences for his role in the Mexican version of Sesame Street. Colunga also starred in other shows, such as The Web, Marked Time, and All of It.

He starred in telenovelas, including Cenizas y diamantes, Madres egoístas and Maria Mercedes. Carla Estrada offered him a role in the soap opera, Más allá del puente, together with Maria Sorté in 1993–1994. After this telenovela, Colunga played a role in Marimar. In 1994, the film Kiss Me on the Mouth featuring Colunga and Paulina Rubio, was shown in the cinema. In 1995, Colunga played the role of Lieutenant Raul Gutierrez in Alondra, a period novel produced by Carla Estrada. He acted alongside Veronica Merchant, Gonzalo Vega, Ernesto Laguardia, Marga Lopez, Ana Colchero, Juan Manuel Bernal, Beatriz Sheridan, and Eric del Castillo.

In 1995–1996, Colunga got his first starring role with Thalía in the telenovela, Maria la del Barrio, giving life to Luis Fernando de la Vega. With this telenovela, Colunga began to be known internationally.

He later starred in Esmeralda (1997) with Leticia Calderon, seen in countries as disparate as Indonesia and the Czech Republic. After the success of Esmeralda, he made a foray into theater with Original Sin Not where he starred with Chantal Andere, as Jenny and Bill, in an unhappy marriage in the process of destruction. His next show was in 1998, La Usurpadora, with Venezuelan actress Gabriela Spanic, Juan Pablo Gamboa, Chantal Andere, Alejandro Ruiz, Enrique Lizalde and Dominika Paleta. He played Carlos Daniel Bracho, a man who knows that the usurper, Paulina, has replaced his wife Paola, and is being blackmailed for it.

His next telenovela were Nunce Te Olvidare (1999) by Edith Gonzalez and Abrazame Muy Fuerte (2000) with Aracely Arambula, Victoria Ruffo, Cesar Evora and Nailea Norvind. After this, he spent time away from telenovelas to study acting and production. He also played a role in Navidad sin fin in 2001. In 2003, he worked in Amor real with Adela Noriega; a production of Carla Estrada, where he played Manuel Fuentes Guerra, the bastard son of a rich landowner. He starred alongside Mauricio Islas and Helena Rojo. In 2003, he won the TVyNovelas Award for Best Actor. After Amor Real, Colunga took some time from TV acting and concentrated on theater. Along with César Evora, he adapted screenplays and launched Death Trap.

After spending several months touring with his work, Colunga returned to television with the telenovela of Carla Estrada, Alborada (2005) and Pasion (2007). He shared the stage with actors like Valentino Lanús, Daniela Romo, Mariana Garza, Luis Roberto Guzmán, Vanessa Guzman, Arturo Peniche, Irán Castillo, Susana González, Sebastián Rulli, and Daniela Castro.

In 2008, he worked on the telenovela Manana Es Para Siempre sharing credits with Silvia Navarro and Lucero. This telenovela is produced by Nicando Diaz, in which he plays Eduardo Juarez, a man who, for his revenge against Barbara Greco (Lucero) changes his name to Franco Santoro. In 2010, he was the star of the telenovela Soy tu dueña produced by Nicandro Diaz; he shared credit with Lucero, Gabriela Spanic, and Jacqueline Andere.

In 2012, he starred in Porque el amor manda with Blanca Soto, Erick Elias, and Claudia Alvarez, debuting in the genre of telenovela with a comic touch. Porque el Amor Manda is a Mexican telenovela produced by Juan Osorio. It was an adaptation of the 2011 Secretary. This starred Colunga and Blanca Soto, with Erick Elias and Claudia Alvarez, who play the main antagonists of the story.

In 2015, he worked on the telenovela Pasión y Poder sharing credits with Jorge Salinas and Susana González.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Ref.	Notes
1988	La guerrera vengadora	Unknown role	[4]	Mexico
1995	Bésame En La Boca	Arturo	[5]	Mexico
2007	Ladrón que roba a ladrón	Alejandro Toledo	[6]	United States
2008	The Wackness	Jason		United States
2009	Wild About Harry	Danny		Canada
2015	The Wedding Ringer	Jose		United States
2015	Ladrones	Alejandro Toledo	[7]	United States

Television performances

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1988	Dulce desafío	Unknown
1990	Cenizas y diamantes	Unknown role
1991	Alcanzar una estrella II	Unknown role
	Madres egoístas	Jorge
1992	María Mercedes	Chicho
1993	Marianela	Pablo Ordoñez	Main role
1993	Más allá del puente	Valerio
1994	Mujer, casos de la vida real	Unknown role	Episode: "Te olvidaré"
	Marimar	Adrián Rosales
1995	María la del Barrio	Luis Fernando de la Vega	Main role
	Alondra	Raúl Gutiérrez
1997	Esmeralda	José Armando Peñarreal De Velasco	Main role
1998	La Usurpadora	Carlos Daniel Bracho	Main role
	Más allá de la Usurpadora		Main role	Television film
1999	Cuento de Navidad	Jaime Rodríguez Coder
	Nunca Te Olvidaré	Luis Gustavo Uribe Del Valle	Main role
2000	Abrázame muy fuerte	Carlos Manuel Rivero	Main role
2001	Navidad sin fin	Pedro
2002	XHDRbZ	José	Episode: "Una de lobos"
2003	Amor real	Manuel Fuentes Guerra	Main role
2005	Alborada	Luis Manrique y Arellano	Main role
2007	Pasión	Ricardo de Salamanca y Almonte/"El Antillano"	Main role
2008	Mañana es para siempre	Eduardo Juárez Cruz / Franco Santoro	Main role	[8]
2009	El Show de Cristina	Himself	Special	[9]
2010	Soy tu dueña	José Miguel Montesinos	Main role	[10]
2012	Porque el amor manda	Jesús García	Main role	[11]
2015	Pasión y Poder	Eladio Gómez Luna	Main role	[12]
2022	El secreto de la familia Greco	Aquiles Greco	Main role	[13]
2023	El maleficio	Enrique de Martino	Main role	[14]
2024	El Conde: Amor y honor	Alejandro Gaitán / Count Joaquín de Montenegro	Main role	[15]

See also

• TVyNovelas Award for Best Lead Actor

References

1. Díaz, Por Aroa (November 16, 2017). "Fernando Colunga reaparece en Estados Unidos". Diez Minutos (in European Spanish). Retrieved September 30, 2021.
2. ""Amor real", la nueva serie romántica de La 1 para la sobremesa estival" (in Spanish). invertia.com. July 18, 2012. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
3. "Univision Debuts 'Amor Real' – an Unforgettable Love Story of Epic Proportions; Sweeping Tale Set in Turbulent 19th Century Mexico". Business Wire. October 19, 2004. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
4. "La guerrera vengadora – Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía". imcine.gob.mx (in Spanish). Archived from the original on January 7, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
5. Díaz, Por Aroa (February 29, 2016). "Fernando Colunga, 50 años en 50 imágenes". Diez Minutos (in European Spanish). Retrieved September 2, 2019.
6. ""Ladrones" secuela de "Ladrón que roba a ladrón" llegará en octubre - SanDiegoRed.com". SanDiegoRed (in Spanish). Retrieved September 2, 2019.
7. Orozco, Gisela (October 9, 2015). "Fernando Colunga y Eduardo Yáñez: 'Ladrones' con escrúpulos". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved September 2, 2019.
8. ""Mañana es para siempre", la telenovela de más éxito en Estados Unidos". abc (in Spanish). October 30, 2009. Retrieved September 2, 2019.
9. admin (April 14, 2021). "Celebrando 20 años de carrera de Fernando Colunga en el Show de Cristina". Mundo Videos HD (in Spanish). Retrieved September 22, 2022.
10. Univision. "¿Qué ha sido del elenco de 'Soy tu dueña' a nueve años de su estreno?". Univision (in Spanish). Retrieved September 2, 2019.
11. ""Porque el amor manda" volverá a transmitirse por el 2". EL DEBATE (in European Spanish). Retrieved September 2, 2019.
12. vertele.eldiario.es (January 11, 2016). "'Pasión y poder': Fernando Colunga como villano y otras razones para darle una oportunidad". vertele (in European Spanish). Retrieved September 2, 2019.
13. Vicencio, Miguel (November 16, 2022). "El secreto de la familia Greco: Reparto, historia real y capítulos". Vogue (in Spanish). Retrieved October 15, 2023.
14. González, Moisés (July 24, 2023). "Fernando Colunga regresa a Televisa a 7 años de su última telenovela: "Es un ciclo que se vuelve a abrir"". People en Español (in Spanish). Retrieved October 15, 2023.
15. "Fernando Colunga será 'El Conde' en nueva serie de Telemundo". La Opinión (in Spanish). February 15, 2022. Retrieved June 16, 2022.

External links

• Official website
• Fernando Colunga at the Internet Movie Database