Daniel Guzmán

Daniel García-Pérez Guzmán (born 21 September 1973), known commonly as Daniel Guzmán, is a Spanish actor, screenwriter and film director.

He grew up in Las Águilas, an area of Madrid, where during his youth he painted graffiti under the pseudonym Tifón, in spite of a large part of the neighbourhood in Aluche being against his paintings. These paintings earned him a certain fame, to the point at which he co-led a docudrama called Mi Firma en las Paredes for the features programme Crónicas urbanas in 1990.

Various consecutive strokes of luck made him decide to dedicate himself full-time to acting. In 1994, Fernando León de Aranoa offered him a character in his short film Sirenas. He later obtained small roles in the films Hola, ¿estás sola? and Puede ser divertido. Shortly afterwards, he headlined the cast of Eso (1997), under the direction of Fernando Colomo, in which Daniel played Domingo, a man in his twenties obsessed over losing his virginity. In 1995 the casting director Sara Bilbatúa took advantage of the image Daniel offered in this film as a representative of a disorientated youth to include him in the cast of Éxtasis, where he played a criminal whose best friend (Rober: Javier Bardem) was confused with the lost son of an older man. His next complete film, Suerte, confirmed this profile, playing Toni, a character who robbed banks to start a new life with his girlfriend.

In his television works in the series Menudo es mi padre (1997), he changed style, taking the role of an exemplary student. After a cameo in Barrio, Daniel gained notable roles in El grito en el cielo[10] and Rewind.[11] In theatre, he starred in Yonquis y yanquis (1996-1997) and Joe Killer (1998).[12]

Daniel returned that year to television in the series Policías, en el corazón de la calle (2000-2003) where he played Rafael, an undisciplined police officer who in his youth had trafficked drugs, and who was obligated to arrest his former friends until he was shot, leaving him paraplegic.[13] Together with Josep Maria Pou, he was nominated for the Fotogramas de Plata awards for best television actor.[14]

In the early 2000s he took up his political activity once again to actively participate in the protests against the Iraq War, during which he was arrested.[15]

In February 2015, he played Lucas in the Antena 3 series Velvet.[16] A year later he received the Goya award for Best New Director for the film A cambio de nada.[17] In 2018 he switched to stage direction for Perfectos desconocidos, written by Paolo Genovese, which he helped adapt.[18]