Najwa Nimri

Najwa Nimri Urrutikoetxea was born on 14 February 1972 in Pamplona, Spain to a Jordanian father, Karam Nimri, and a Spanish mother, giving her a multicultural heritage that would later inform her artistic sensibility. After moving with her family to Bilbao as a child, she grew up in the vibrant Santutxu district, surrounded by music and film influences that sparked her early passion for performance. In the mid‑1990s she entered the Spanish entertainment scene, debuting with a leading role in Daniel Calparsoro’s Salto al vacío (Jump into the Void) in 1995, and simultaneously co‑founded the experimental trip‑hop duo Najwajean with producer Carlos Jean, releasing the groundbreaking album No Blood in 1998. Her sultry vocal timbre and dark, downtempo sound quickly established her as a pioneering figure in Spain’s alternative music landscape, while her striking screen presence earned her roles in seminal films such as Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998) and Julio Medem’s cult classics Open Your Eyes (1997) and Sex and Lucía (2001). Throughout the early 2000s she balanced a prolific recording career—dropping solo albums like Walkabout (2006) and Donde rugen los volcanes (2012)—with increasingly complex characters on screen, cementing her reputation as a versatile actress and singer. **

** In the streaming era, Nimri’s portrayals of formidable antagonists catapulted her to international fame: she embodied the ruthless prison boss Zulema in Locked Up (Vis a vis) and the chilling police inspector Alicia Sierra in the global hit series Money Heist (La casa de papel). Her performance as an amnesic diva in Quién te cantará earned a Goya nomination for Best Actress in 2018, underscoring her critical acclaim. Recent projects include a haunting turn as Haruka in the horror series 30 Coins and a politically charged role as a right‑wing regional president in the drama Breathless (2024). Nimri also lent her voice to the character Kate Laswell in the blockbuster video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), showcasing her adaptability across media. Over three decades, her bold artistic choices and intense screen charisma have made her an enduring icon of contemporary Spanish cinema and music.