BIO
Elena Sandell is a Spanish multilingual actress.
Born in Madrid (Spain), she spoke both English and Spanish from an early age and it didn’t take long until she learned French and Catalan.
She became interested in acting while studying Veterinary Medicine at the Complutense University of Madrid but didn´t start taking classes until her time in the Canary Islands, at the age of 26. By then she had already lived in Helsinki and London.
Her first theatre role was Pitusa in Fernando Arrabal’s modernist play Les “cucarachas” de Yale (La Princesa Pitusa). Then she was cast by Raúl Navarro (scriptwriter from “El Intermedio” TV show) to play the leading role, along with Miguel Esteban (El Intermedio TV show, Paramount Comedy…) in his short movie Day 51. Her role of the temperamental Eva, got her a special mention from the Jury of La Palma Rueda. Soon after that she shot various short movies, mainly playing the leading roles and she got her first role in the independent feature film, Muchachos, directed by Raúl Jiménez Pastor.
An adventure seeker and relentless learner, she moved to New York to study acting. There she shot some short movies (The Water Bottle, Isolation, Some Things Never Change) and music videos such as the one for the song Break My Heart Around You, by the rock band Atomic Tom.
Back in Spain, she chose Barcelona as her city, as she confesses her need to be close to the sea. She studied at the drama school Estudi de Nancy Tuñón i Jordi Oliver and later on, driven by her eagerness to find the truth of her characters, she enrolled Javier Galitó-Cava’s Meisner Technique Programme, where she received classes from Javier Galitó-Cava, Rachel Adler and Matthew Graham Smith.
She’s been in English plays such as Calling Trixie, No More Kit Kats and Grief Porn and has written and performed the short plays Gatas and Queens, which both received great reviews.
Her characters stand out as being strong women always surrounded by a mysterious aura: in Inocence, by Iván López, she incarnates a young woman ready to wreak vengeance, no matter what, on those who ruined her childhood; in Nocturnal, by Rudy Rodríguez, she plays a reporter who refuses to accept the consequences of the attack she has suffered; in Extintion, by Iván López, she escapes an abuser husband after being raped. But it’s probably in music videos such as Bella, by Big Larry, Ingrávida, by Shining Crane or Break My Heart Around You, by Atomic Tom where that strength is filled with sensuality and femininity.
We’ll soon be seeing her playing Caleb Thomas’ mom in the Nickelodeon American TV show Lost In The West.