Cecilia Gessa (Madrid, November 22, 1977), is a Spanish actress, director, screenwriter and producer.[1][2]
Career Path
Early career
Cecilia Gessa was born in Madrid in 1977. She comes from a family of artists: her father Fernando Gessa is a writer, her grandmother Fina Gessa was an actress, and her great-grandfather Sebastián Gessa y Arias was a famous painter.[3]
In 2001, under the name Celia Blanco [4], she began her career in the audiovisual industry, including adult films, a stage she abandoned in 2007 to focus on mainstream cinema.[5]
In 2002, she received the Linda Chacón Awad for recognition of women’s professional work as a film producer and director. [6][7]
She was trained in Estudio Recabarren, a school of film and television acting operating in Madrid. Upon matriculating, she studied under the renowned Spanish director Yayo Cáceres, leader of the theater company Ron Lalá, and was a member of the theatre company Simpañía. She was mentored in singing and dancing by Óscar Mingorance, Karen Taff and received further acting training with Jo Kelly.
Film career
In 2000, she began working with the film producer and director Ramiro Lapiedra, under the pseudonym Celia Blanco. The following year, they obtained financing for her first feature film titled The Panther Woman, inspired by the horror film Cat People (1942) directed by Jacques Tourneur. After this production, Ella Gessa signed an exclusive contract with the distributor Elephant Channel and made a series of films until 2004, when she left the adult film industry. In 2006, she was the godmother of the I Madrid Erotic Festival. In parallel, Gessa also became known to the general public with her pseudonym Celia Blanco by participating in television programs such as Crónicas marcianas, directed by Javier Sardà on Telecinco.[8] Due to her presence as a collaborator in television programs
On cinema, she has taken part in the collective film Sequence, sponsored by Montxo Armendariz (included in the short-film “Vigilantes” of Hermanos Prada).
On television, she appeared in series such as “Impares”, “Bicho Malo” and “RIS Científica” In theatre she has taken part, among others, in plays such as “El Comedor” directed by Eduardo Recabarren; “El diario de Ana Frank” directed by Daniel Gacía; “¿Está ocupada esta silla?” and “Todo a su tiempo, cósmico” directed both of them by Max Lemcke; and “¡Ay, que me viene!” directed by Carlos Bardem. She combines her work as actress with the direction and management of Gessas’ Events Company. In 2009, she was awarded in Colombia with the Zootropo Prize as the best actress.
In 2010, she began a relationship with the actor Carlos Bardem. In 2016 she joined the cast of La_embajada (Antena 3) where she played Lucía Cárdenas, wife of Paco Cárdenas (Carlos Bardem).
She also had notable roles in the 2018 Netflix series Paquita Salas[8] and in the 2020 La 1 comedy series about the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Diarios de la cuarentena.[9]
References
- ^ “Cecilia Gessa, la novia de Carlos Bardem,’La Embajada’“. Libertad Digital (in Spanish). 27 April 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
- ^ “Mujeres que tocan todos los palos profesionales del teatro”. TeatroaTeatro (in Spanish). 27 April 2016. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
- ^ “Cecilia Gessa| Cecilia Gessa | Comunidad de Madrid”. cecilia-gessa. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
- ^ The former3… actress who is in ‘The Embassy’ of Antena 3 04-28-2016, as.com (in Spanish)
- ^ “EL MUNDO – Diario online líder de información en español”. El Mundo (in Spanish). 7 April 2026. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ^ “Fotos: La final del Certamen de Cortometraje de “El Pecado”, en imágenes”. Hoy (in Spanish). 9 August 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ^ Press, Europa (14 July 2022). “El Certamen Internacional de Cortometrajes ‘El Pecado 2022’ de Llerena recibe 921 trabajos”. www.europapress.es. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ^ Navarro, Sergio (30 June 2018). “‘Paquita Salas’: Estos son todos los cameos de la segunda temporada”. FormulaTV (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ^ “Cecilia Gessa: ‘El humor es ahora el mejor mecanismo de defensa’“. El Periódico (in Spanish). 4 May 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
