Biography
Spanish actress Ivana Baquero made an assured debut in a starring role at the age of 11 in Guillermo Del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006), and continued to work in fantasy and dark dramatic projects, including the epic fantasy series "The Shannara Chronicles" (MTV/Spike, 2016- ). Born Ivana Baquero Macias in Barcelona, Spain on June 11, 1994, she began her acting career at the age of eight years, and quickly amassed supporting turns as sensitive children in a trio of horror-related films, including Brian Yuzna's "Rottweiler" (2004), with Spanish fantastic film legend Paul Naschy, and "Fragile" (2005) opposite American star Calista Flockhart. Her breakout role came the following year when Macias beat out more than a thousand other young actresses to win the lead in Guillermo del Toro's melancholy fantasy "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006). Cast as an eight-year-old girl who finds solace in a fairy tale world during the early days of the Franco regime, Baquero won critical praise in her native country, including Goya and Imagen Awards for Best Actress and numerous nominations from international critic groups, including the Chicago Film Critics Association. Baquero then made her American film debut with Kevin Costner in the little-seen horror film "The New Daughter" (2009) before focusing largely on completing her studies at the American School of Barcelona, from which she graduated in 2012. Shen then returned to acting in minor projects, including the Spanish-British thriller "Another Me" (2013) with Rhys Ifans, before signing on to her first American television project. "The Shannara Chronicles," based on the fantasy novel series by Terry Brooks and produced by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar ("Smallville," The WB/CW, 2001-2011), cast Baquero as a human girl, Eretria, who joins a group of fellow adventurers in dispatching demonic forces from civilization. The series, which was filmed in New Zealand, enjoyed its first season on MTV before moving to Spike for its sophomore year in 2017.
