Zoé Arnao grew up in a showbiz family. Her parents — Gisela Arnao and Miko Jarry — are actors. “I wasn’t into the idea of following their path, but they signed me up [aged nine] for theatre classes and that changed my mind,” Arnao says.
Her breakthrough was Pilar Palomero’s Schoolgirls, about the friendship between two girls on the threshold of adolescence in 1990s Spain. It premiered in the Berlinale’s Generation Kplus section in 2020, winning four Goyas the following year. She has since appeared in The House Among The Cactuses, a psychological thriller just released in Spain, as one of the daughters of a family living in the Canary Islands wilderness, homeschooling their kids, whose life is unsettled by the arrival of a stranger. Set in the 1970s, it is an adaptation of Paul Pen’s book Desert Flowers, originally set in Mexico’s Baja California. “It was quite a hippy shoot,” says Arnao, who has also wrapped psychological thriller El Faro and has another thriller, Verano En Rojo, in the can.
While shooting El Faro, Arnao was cast in Netflix’s The Longest Night, an action series set in a psychiatric prison. “I had never walked into a set like that, a production so big,” she says. “You must learn to stand your ground in a context like that. It was a fantastic experience.”
She also appears in Movistar Plus+ series Offworld (Apagón), as the lead character of an episode directed by Maixabel screenwriter Isa Campo. The series premiered out of competition at this year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival.
“I am one of those nerds that tries to follow everything, trying to watch as many films and series as I can, checking IMDb constantly,” admits Arnao. “Zendaya, Alicia Vikander, the actors in House Of The Dragon, I follow very closely. I love Fleabag and the genius of Phoebe Waller-Bridge.”
Arnao has found the best way to learn her trade is as a cinephile. But she also watches how people talk and move. “If I see a couple having an argument, I keep an eye on them — discreetly. An actor’s job has no limits.”
Contact: Carlos Ramos, Cram Talent
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