Born Victoria Mérida Rojas in Madrid on 4 July 1959, Abril is fluent in Spanish, Italian and French, but not quite as comfortable with English. Victoria has concentrated predominantly on European-made movies as a result. But there have been the occasional English language roles, like 101 Reykjavík. Victoria was studying dance when her teacher encouraged her to appear in her first film Obsesión. After that, she was chosen as co-hostess of a famous Spanish TV contest "Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez", which made her a household name over the next two years. She has won a number of European movie awards and been nominated eight times for the Spanish language Goya Awards in the Lead Actress category, winning it for Nobody Will Speak of Us When We're Dead.
