1975, Madrid

Born in Madrid to a British mother and ‘Gaditano’ father, Leanor’s first years were driven by her desire to become a ballerina. When she was 8-years-old she began studying classical ballet but her dreams were cut short by an injury to her knee. This led her to change into the field of acting where she took her first steps in amateur theatre in various cultural centres. In 1993 her first break in cinema arrived with Pablo Llorca’s Jardin colgantes.

After this, Leanor moved to London to train at the Actor’s Centre, taking advantage of the fact that she is a native English speaker. On her return to Spain, and after performances in various television series, Leanor consolidated her place in the film industry by gaining a Goya nomination for Best Actress in Antonio Mercero’s, La hora de los valientes (1998). She would go on to work alongside Cayetana Guillén Cuervo in the series, Raquel busca su sitio and would take the lead role in Bigas Luna’s Sound of the sea (2001). In 2002 she featured in Daniel Fejerman and Inés París’s comedy, My mother likes women, with a leading role that saw her nominated again for a Goya Award. For this same part she was awarded the Fotogramas de Plata for Best Actress. In the same year Pedro Almodóvar released Talk to her, a film that contributed to her growing prestige and in which she took the part of a Ballarina in a coma.

Later she would star in numerous films, including: Isabel Coixet’s My life without me; Cesc Gay’s In the city; Patrick Alessadrin’s French comedy, Mauvais esprit; Joaquín Oristrell’s Unconscious; Manuel Huerga’s Salvador; Glenio Bonder’s Belle du seigneur; Alex de la Iglesias’s The Oxford Murders; and Alessandro Baricco’s Lezione 21 (2007).

Between 2008 and 2012 the actress films Andrucha Waddington’s The outlaw, Dark impilse directed by Mariano Barroso and Joan Carr-Wiggin’s If I were you.

In 2013 repeats shooting with Cesc Gay in the movie A gun in each hand.

In 2016 Leonor stars in the Antena 3 series Pulsaciones with Pablo Derqui. She also performs in the film Muse by Jaume Balagueró. In 2018 she joins the Telecinco serie Vivir sin permiso starring José Coronado and Álex González. In 2019, she filmed the series Nasdrovia for Movistar+ and the series La templanza for Prime Video. Her most recent works include the films No mires a los ojos by Félix Viscarret and Chinas by Arantxa Echevarria, as well as the TNT series No me gusta conducir. In the summer of 2023, she films the third season of the series The Mallorca Files for BBC One.

Her upcoming project is the feature film Anatema by Jimina Sabadú, in which Leonor will star alongside Pablo Derqui.

Alongside her cinematographic career, Leonor Watling has also triunfed as a singer/songwriter in the band Marlango.