Background
Sbaraglia was born in Buenos Aires. His mother, Roxana Randon, is a local actress and theater coach.
Sbaraglia was born in Buenos Aires. His mother, Roxana Randon, is a local actress and theater coach.
He has also worked in Mexico, and was cast in his first English-language role in Red Lights. He started his acting career at the age of 16 in Louisiana Noche de los lápices (Night of the Pencils), a political documentary drama directed by Héctor Olivera. In 1987, he gained popularity among Argentine youth for his role in the television series Clave de sol.
In the following years, he starred in television and film productions as well as in the theater (eg, in Louisiana Soledad de los Campos de Algodon, Closer).
In 1993, he worked for the first time together with Argentine director Marcelo Piñeyro in Tango feroz: la leyenda de Tanguito. They came together again for Caballos salvajes (1995), for which Leonardo Sbaraglia earned the Jury Prize for Best Acting at the, and later for Cenizas del paraíso (1997) and an acclaimed performance in Plata quemada (2000).
Sbaraglia emigrated to Spain in 1998. Other starring roles of his include Deseo (Desire) (2002), a Gerardo Vera film in which he plays at the sides of Leonor Watling and Cecilia Roth, and Carmen (2003), an adaptation of Prosper Mérimée"s classic by director Vicente Aranda.
Sbaraglia worked again in 2005 with director Antonio Hernández, with whom he had already shot En la ciudad sin límites in 2002.
This and his contribution to Sebastián Borensztein"s mini television series Tiempofinal (2000) after their production of El Garante, for which he earned the Martín Fierro Award for best performance by an actor. Hernández and Piñeyro are the only directors with whom Sbaraglia has worked with more than once. The City of Huelva awarded Sbaraglia an honorary award (Premio Honorífico) in 2005.
Sbaraglia returned to Argentina in 2008, and starred in Marcelo Piñeyro"s Las viudas de los jueves (Thursday Widows) in a role nominated for an Argentine Critics Association Silver Condor Award.
Among his notables later roles was opposite Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver in Rodrigo Cortés" Red Lights (2012). And as one of two men in a caught in a road duel in Damián Szifrón"s acclaimed Wild Tales (2014).
Sbaraglia married the Argentine sculptor Guadalupe Martín in 2001. The couple has one child.