Early life and education Jorge de Juan was born into a very artistic family in
Cartagena, Spain, in 1961. At the age of 17 he decided to be an actor and entered the Royal School of Dramatic Art of Madrid in 1978, graduating three years later. In 1979 he made his full debut, when he was still at the school, in
Five hours with Mario, directed by
Josefina Molina in the Theatre Marquina, Madrid. Then Miguel Narros cast him in
Macbeth at the
Teatro Español de Madrid. In 1981 Jorge de Juan moved to London where he studied direction and production at the British Theatre Association. Michael McCallion was his voice teacher; he had classes with Clifford Williams and David Perry. Around the same time, he assisted
Ian McKellen in directing
Acting Shakespeare, at Teatro Español de Madrid.
Career On his return to Spain in 1982,
Jaime Chávarri, cast him in what would be his debut film,
Bicycles Are for the Summer, and at the same time he was called by
José Luis Gómez to appear in the very successful
Oedipus Rex, directed by Stavros Doufexis. Since then, Jorge de Juan has combined his work as an actor and producer in both theatre and film, and in the past decade as a director, too. He produced and performed in
Kiss of the Spider Woman, directed by Felipe Vega. From 1998, the success of the play
The Woman in Black led him to perform it more than 400 times with
Emilio Gutiérrez Caba. He produced the same play, in 2007, again appearing with Caba, and directed by Eduardo Bazo. They repeated their former success and reached a thousand shows over the two productions. In 2009, he produced, co-directed and starred in the play
The 39 Steps, in his own version of Patrick Barlow's adaptation of the Hitchcock classic. In 2012 he starred in
Hay que Deshacer la Casa, in which Andoni Ferreño played the lead. And he starred in, produced and directed the second run of his
The 39 Steps. As a film and television actor his credits include a total of 36 films and TV series, with roles in
El Mejor de los Tiempos,
Nadie como tú,
Manos de Seda,
Aquitania,
Otra Ciudad,
La sombra de Caín, and
Imaginario, amongst others. Then in Spanish or English, there have been
Open your Eyes,
One of the Hollywood Ten,
Talk of Angels,
Beltenebros,
Las Razones de mis Amigos, and
Bicycles Are for the Summer, etc. Jorge de Juan was awarded the Francisco Rabal Film award for his starring role in
El Mejor de los Tiempos by Vega, (winner of the
San Sebastián International Film Festival). Furthermore, he received the Billboard Turia Theatre Award in 1998 for his performance in
The Woman in Black. One of his most significant achievements was being the director of El Palenque in the
Seville Expo '92 For three and a half years he coordinated the construction and design of the space, its programming, its staffing and management, the booking of shows. At the same time, he developed a specific plan of operations for the Expo period. Under his direction over a period of six months there were 1,162 performances, as well as official events for the 110 countries involved, their government agencies and businesses. He was personally responsible for receiving kings, heads of states, prime ministers, ministers and other personalities. As a result of all this experience he created El Palenque Productions SL in Valencia with the aim of developing film and theatre projects. Their first jobs were the short film
M de Amor and the production of the
Miradas series: 48 30-minute episodes on different topics to do with the Valencian community, commissioned by the Government of Valencia. He wrote and produced the feature film
Bala Perdida starring
David Carradine and
Juanjo Puigcorbé. It was awarded Best Feature Film and Best Soundtrack at the Mostra de Valencia Cinema. Furthermore, he co-produced the feature film
Imaginario with Dexiderius Productions. He was also associate producer on the film
Kordon by Serbian director
Goran Markovic (
Montreal World Film Festival, The New Directors Award at the Montpellier Festival, Special Prize Festival Jury Orense). More recently he co-directed and produced the theatre hit
End of the Rainbow by
Peter Quilter in the Marquina theatre in Madrid. Next he was the executive producer and co-director of
Dracula. He had been a member of the Board of Directors of AISGE (Management Society for Actors and Performers' Rights) and had been a patron of the Foundation AISGE. He is a member of the
Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences of Spain. On two occasions, he was a member of the Expert Committee of the Ministry of Culture. He currently lives in London, where in 2014 he founded the Spanish Theatre Company a charity whose aim is to bring Spanish and Latin-American culture to London through the Cervantes Theater. The Cervantes Theatre was built in 2016 at
Southwark as the home of the Spanish Theatre Company to promote Spanish language dramatic arts. Also, he is an associate director of companies such as
Fourth Monkey, where he has directed
The Grain Store and
The Public, and Marquina Theatre Group (Madrid). As a director in the Spanish Theatre Company, he has done different productions such as
The House of Bernarda Alba,
Blood Wedding and
The Judge of the Divorces… and others. In addition, he has done the dramaturgy of the show
She Said for the
English National Ballet, choreographed by Annabelle López Ochoa, Yabin Wang and Aszure Barton. ==Films==