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Leonor Varela is an exotic beauty with alluring good looks. she was born on Dec 9, 1972 in Santiago, Chile. Her parents are the famous biologist Francisco Varela and Leonor Palma (dancer). She has one sister Alejandra and two brothers, Javier and Gabriel. Leonor Varela was exotic from birth: a blend of French and Chilean genes, she inherited the fiery spirit of Latin Americans with the brooding elegance of the French. And though she was born Chile, her family fled to Costa Rica, leaving behind the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
She soon found herself in Germany, then back in Chile, and finally in France in her late teens. Likely tired of so much traveling, she decided to stay in Paris when her parents announced they were moving again. Varela attended college there and was strongly drawn to the arts. Dabbling in classical guitar, drawing, painting, and even some modeling, she found her calling in acting when she was 20. After graduating from the Ecole du Passage and the Conservatoire Superieur de Paris, she was ready for the big screen.
In 1997, Leonor got her first, albeit minor movie "gig in Le ciel est a nous" (Shooting Stars), a French production. She was equally skillful on TV, appearing in such European series as Pony Trek (Swedish) and Inca de Oro (French/Spanish), as well as Tic Tac (Chilean). It was the latter that attracted the attention of American studios.
However Leonor gets her first break as Cleopatra. Cleopatra, the 1999 ABC miniseries, made a star of Leonor Varela. Every review gushed about the power of Varela's screen presence wrought by her unabashed confidence. Playing one of the greatest seducers in history had an effect on her co-star Billy Zane, to whom she became engaged.
Another French film later, Leonor found herself back in Hollywood. She co-starred with Pierce Brosnan and Jamie Lee Curtis in The Tailor of Panama (2001), James Van Der Beek and Ashton Kutcher in Texas Rangers that same year, and alongside Wesley Snipes as sultry vampire Nyssa Damaskinos in Blade II (2002).
Varela has given Hollywood a break and returned to Chile to film Paraiso B (2002), and France for the 2003 productions Pas si grave and Tais-toi. In 2004, she can add Americano, a film about an American backpacker, and the Spanish film Casas de carton, to her resume.
Leonor Varela broke off her engagement to Zane, but they have since remained friends. She lives on her own in New York City.
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