Guillermo Francella

Guillermo Héctor Francella is an Argentine actor and comedian born on February 14, 1955. Over a career spanning several decades, he has established himself as a prominent leading man on television, as well as an accomplished film and stage actor. Critics and industry specialists consider him to be among the most influential and widely recognized performers in Argentina.

Raised in Buenos Aires, Francella spent his early years in Villa del Parque before his family relocated to Béccar. His mother was Adelina Redondo and his father was Ricardo Héctor Francella, a bank employee and athletic coach who passed away when Francella was twenty-six. His paternal grandfather was an Italian immigrant from Calabria. After finishing high school at the Institute June 20 in 1972, Francella completed a three-year journalism program. He worked briefly as a journalist for a magazine before being dismissed, after which he worked in retail clothing, insurance sales, and real estate.

Francella made his acting debut in a student play after high school and appeared in a commercial in the early 1980s. His television career officially began in 1980 with Los hnos. Torterolo, followed by film appearances starting in 1985. His major television breakthrough came in 1988 with the telecomedy De carne somos. Shortly after, he achieved widespread popularity starring in the 1989 action-comedy parody Los extermineitors and its sequels, which inspired the hit spin-off television series Brigada Cola and a live theatrical adaptation.

During the 1990s and 2000s, Francella's prominence grew both nationally and internationally. His show Naranja y media was broadcast abroad under the title My Better Halves, and his movie Un Argentino en New York became a major commercial hit. He took on diverse projects, including playing triplets in Trillizos, dijo la partera and starring in the sketch comedy series Poné a Francella. From 2005 to 2006, he played Pepe Argento in Casados con Hijos, a performance that earned him a Martín Fierro Award. In the same era, he made his musical theater debut in a production of The Producers.

Francella continued to feature in major cinematic projects, including the 2008 Mexican film Rudo y Cursi. In 2009, he co-starred in El secreto de sus ojos, a blockbuster film that won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His later screen work includes the comedy series El hombre de tu vida, the feature film Corazón de León—for which he received a Silver Condor Award nomination—and the box-office success The Clan, where he portrayed the real-life criminal Arquímedes Puccio.

On a personal level, Francella married Marynés Breña in 1989. The couple has two children, Nicolás and Johanna, born in 1990 and 1993 respectively.