Ana Celia de Armas Caso is a Cuban and Spanish actress who has been nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA, and two Golden Globes for her performances in Hollywood films. Born on April 30, 1988, in Havana, Cuba, she gained international recognition for her roles in Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Knives Out (2019), and Blonde (2022). She became the first Cuban nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in Blonde.
Ana De Armas Biography Early Life and Family
Ana de Armas was born on April 30, 1988, in Havana, Cuba, and was raised in Santa Cruz del Norte, a small town east of Havana. Her father, Ramón de Armas, had various jobs including bank manager, teacher, school principal, and deputy mayor, having previously studied philosophy at a Soviet university. Her mother, Ana Caso, worked in the human resources section of the Ministry of Education.
De Armas has one older brother, Francisco Javier de Armas Caso, an American-based photographer. Her maternal grandparents were Spanish immigrants to Cuba from the regions of Guardo, León, and Valverde de la Sierra, Palencia, both in the north of Spain. While de Armas grew up with food rationing, fuel shortages, and electricity blackouts during Cuba’s Special Period, she has described her early life as happy.
Ana De Armas Education and Training
During her childhood and adolescence, de Armas had limited knowledge of popular culture beyond Cuba. She was allowed to watch “20 minutes of cartoons on Saturday and the Sunday movie matinee,” and her family did not own a VCR. She memorized and practiced monologues in front of a mirror and decided to become an actress when she was 12 years old.
In 2002, aged 14, de Armas successfully auditioned to join Havana’s National Theatre of Cuba. She sometimes hitchhiked to attend the “rigorous” course and filmed three movies while still a student. She left the four-year drama course shortly before presenting her final thesis because Cuban graduates are forbidden from leaving the country without first completing three years of mandatory service to the community. At age 18, with Spanish citizenship through her maternal grandparents, she moved to Madrid to pursue an acting career.
Ana De Armas Career in Spanish Cinema (2006-2013)
De Armas had a starring role opposite Álex González in Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón’s romantic drama Una rosa de Francia (2006) when she was just 16 years old. The director visited her drama school and interrupted her audition to inform her that the role was hers. She then starred in El edén perdido (2007) and had a supporting role in Fernando Pérez’s Madrigal (2007), filmed at night without the permission of her drama school tutors.
At age 18, de Armas moved to Madrid and within two months was cast as Carolina in the drama series El Internado (2007-2010), in which she starred for six seasons. The television show, set in a boarding school, became popular with viewers and made de Armas a celebrity figure in Spain. Despite the popularity of El Internado, de Armas felt typecast and was mainly offered roles as youngsters, so she asked to be written out of the show in its second to last season.
Transition to Hollywood (2014-2019)
After spending a few months living in New York City to learn English, de Armas decided to move to Los Angeles in 2014 with encouragement from her newly hired Hollywood agent. When she first arrived, she had to start her career again “from scratch” and spoke very little English. She spent four months in full-time education to learn English, not wanting to be confined to playing characters written specifically for Latina actresses.
De Armas starred opposite Keanu Reeves in her first Hollywood release, Eli Roth’s erotic thriller Knock Knock (2015), learning her lines phonetically. She had a supporting role in Todd Phillips’s War Dogs (2016) and starred opposite Édgar Ramírez in the biopic Hands of Stone (2016) as the wife of Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán.
Ana De Armas Breakthrough Roles
In Denis Villeneuve’s futuristic thriller Blade Runner 2049 (2017), de Armas had a supporting role as Joi, the holographic AI girlfriend of Ryan Gosling’s character. Mark Kermode of The Guardian said she “brings three-dimensional warmth to a character who is essentially a digital projection”. For her performance, she earned a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.
De Armas’s role as an immigrant nurse in the ensemble murder mystery film Knives Out (2019), written and directed by Rian Johnson, was widely praised and marked a breakthrough for the actress. The film was a major box office success, and de Armas was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. She also won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress and the National Board of Review Award for Best Cast with the ensemble.
Leading Roles and Mainstream Recognition
In 2021, de Armas reunited with Daniel Craig to play a Bond girl in Cary Joji Fukunaga’s No Time to Die. Director Fukunaga wrote the character of a Cuban CIA agent named Paloma with de Armas in mind. No Time to Die was a commercial success, grossing $774.2 million worldwide.
De Armas starred in Adrian Lyne’s erotic thriller Deep Water (2022), based upon the novel by Patricia Highsmith, playing a character in an open marriage opposite Ben Affleck. She also starred in the Russo brothers’ Netflix action thriller The Gray Man (2022).
Academy Award Nomination for Blonde
De Armas portrayed Marilyn Monroe (as Norma Jean) in the Netflix biopic Blonde (2022), based on the biographical fiction novel by Joyce Carol Oates. Director Andrew Dominik noticed de Armas’s performance in Knock Knock and secured the role for her after the first audition. In preparation, de Armas worked with a dialect coach for about nine months and studied hundreds of photographs, videos, audio recordings, and films.
Despite criticism towards her casting due to her having a notable Spanish accent, de Armas’s performance was praised. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, in addition to nominations for the BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG Award in the same category. She became the first Cuban to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Recent Projects
De Armas starred with Chris Evans in the Apple TV+ action comedy film Ghosted (2023), also serving as executive producer. She appeared alongside an ensemble cast in Ron Howard’s survival thriller Eden (2024). She then starred in the John Wick spin-off action thriller Ballerina (2025), in which she portrayed a vengeful assassin.
In 2025, de Armas also appeared as a playable character in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as part of a collaboration with Ballerina. She hosted Saturday Night Live in 2023.
Ana De Armas Age
Ana de Armas is 37 years old as of February 2026. She was born on April 30, 1988.
Ana De Armas Husband and Relationships
Ana de Armas is not currently married. She began a relationship with Spanish actor Marc Clotet in mid-2010, and they married on the Costa Brava in July 2011. They divorced in early 2013. Clotet is a Spanish actor and model who stars in the TV series The Hockey Girls, and the exes have said they remained friends post-split.
After meeting on the set of Deep Water in late 2019, de Armas dated American actor Ben Affleck from March 2020 to January 2021. De Armas received significant criticism, particularly among members of the Cuban diaspora, for reportedly dating Anido Cuesta, the stepson of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, since November 2024.
It was reported in July 2025 that she was dating American actor Tom Cruise after she was spotted attending an Oasis concert with him. However, it has since been reported that the couple separated in October or November 2025. In November 2025, de Armas was spotted shopping in Los Angeles with Marcelo Valente, a partner at venture capital firm Babel Ventures.
Ana De Armas Personal Life
De Armas holds triple Cuban, Spanish, and US citizenship. She moved to Los Angeles at age 26 and resides in Vermont as of 2023. Her brother Francisco Javier de Armas Caso is a photographer based in America who, in 2020, was questioned by Cuban police due to his critical stance on Decree 349 and his links to artists under government surveillance.
Notable Movies and Filmography
Ana de Armas has appeared in over 30 films throughout her career. Her notable Spanish-language films include Una rosa de Francia (2006), Mentiras y Gordas (2009), and Por un puñado de besos (2014). Her significant Hollywood films include Knock Knock (2015), War Dogs (2016), Hands of Stone (2016), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Knives Out (2019), No Time to Die (2021), Deep Water (2022), The Gray Man (2022), Blonde (2022), Ghosted (2023), Eden (2024), and Ballerina (2025).
She also had roles in Netflix productions including Sergio (2020), Wasp Network (2019), and The Gray Man (2022). Her scenes in the 2019 romantic comedy Yesterday were cut from the final product despite being included in the film’s trailer.
Awards and Nominations
De Armas has received numerous awards and nominations throughout her career. She won the National Board of Review Award for Best Cast for Knives Out in 2019 and the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same film in 2021. She won the Actors and Actresses Union Awards for Best Actress in an International Production for Knives Out in 2020 and Best Female Performance in an International Production for Blonde in 2023.
Her major nominations include the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Knives Out (2020), and Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG Award nominations for Best Actress for Blonde (2023). She also received a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress for Ghosted (2024).