Ernesto Alterio

Ernesto Federico Alterio Bacaicoa (born 25 September 1970) is an Argentine and Spanish film, theatre, and television actor. He is the son of Argentine actor Hector Alterio.

Life and career

Ernesto Federico Alterio Bacaicoa was born in Buenos Aires on 25 September 1970. Alterio is the son of psychologist Modesta Ángela Bacaicoa Destéfano and actor Héctor Alterio Onorato. His younger sister Malena also pursued an acting career. He is of Italian descent, his grandparents were originally from Carpinone, a commune in the province of Isernia, in the Molise region. During Isabel Perón's government that took place very shortly after the birth of Malena, his father Héctor Alterio was threatened by Triple A, so the family went into exile and settled in Spain between 1974 and 1975 (where Héctor was working at the time).

Installed with his family in Madrid, when he was four years old, Ernesto suffered the uprooting that exile brings. He remained attached to his Argentine roots through family traditions. Same as his father, Alterio acquired a Spanish citizenship along with the Argentine one. He began Biology studies but left to take up History, and continued with those studies for two years. Encouraged to be like his father, Ernesto said that he went "sideways, skirting the edge of the pond so as not to fall into it: music, photography, history..." until he made the decision to accept being an actor. He trained his acting chops under Cristina Rota.

He made his big screen debut in 1992 with a small appearance in Shooting Elizabeth along with Jeff Goldblum. It was followed by minor appearances in You Shall Die in Chafarinas and Mi nombre es sombra.

In 1996, he founded the theatre group 'Ración de oreja' (seed of 'Animalario') together with Alberto San Juan, Guillermo Toledo, and Nathalie Poza.