Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Prolific in Spanish and English-language films, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards.

Cruz was born on 28 April 1974 in the town of Alcobendas, province of Madrid, Spain, to Encarna Sánchez, an Andalusian hairdresser and personal manager, and Eduardo Cruz, an Extremaduran retailer and car mechanic. She has two siblings, Mónica, also an actress, and Eduardo, a singer. She also has a paternal half-sister, Salma. She was raised as a Roman Catholic. Cruz grew up in Alcobendas, and spent long hours at her grandmother's apartment. She said she had a happy childhood. Cruz remembers "playing with some friends and being aware that I was acting as I was playing with them. I would think of a character and pretend to be someone else."

Cruz is married to Spanish actor Javier Bardem. Bardem was her co-star in her breakthrough role as Silvia in Jamón jamón (1992), as well as starring alongside her in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). They were also both in the 2013 film The Counselor, as well as in Everybody Knows in 2018. Cruz began dating Bardem in 2007 and they married in early July 2010 in a private ceremony at a friend's home in the Bahamas. They have a son named Leo Encinas Cruz who was born in January 2011 in Los Angeles and a daughter named Luna Encinas Cruz who was born in July 2013 in Madrid. She became an advocate of breastfeeding in public following the birth of her children.