Antonio Banderas is a Spanish actor, singer, and producer.

He began his acting career with a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar.

In 1991, Madonna introduced Banderas to Hollywood. The following year, still speaking minimal English, he began acting in U.S. films. Despite having to learn all his lines phonetically, Banderas still managed to turn in a critically praised performance as a struggling musician in his first American drama film, The Mambo Kings (1992).

Banderas then broke through to mainstream American audiences in the film Philadelphia (1993), as the lover of lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), who has AIDS. The film's success earned Banderas wide recognition, and the following year he was given a role in Neil Jordan's high-profile adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, sharing the screen with Brad Pitt.

Banderas then began to appear in more high-profile Hollywood films, especially in the 1990s, including Assassins, Evita, Desperado, The Mask of Zorro, Take the Lead, The Expendables 3, and Spy Kids. Banderas also portrayed the voice of "Puss in Boots" in the Shrek sequels.