Guillermo Santa Cruz
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Guillermo Santa Cruz (born 6 January 1984) is an Argentine actor. He is from Buenos Aires and has always lived there.
Santa Cruz demonstrated interest and talent for acting since he was a small child. In 1991, at the age of 7, Santa Cruz made his television debut, at the Telefé telenovela, El Árbol Azul ("The Blue Tree"). In El Árbol Azul he played a character named "Guille" (it is common practice in Latin America to give rookie actors characters that share the actor's first name).
Santa Cruz first met Agustina Cherri and Alberto Fernández de Rosa during the filming, also in 1991, of Grande Pa! ("Super Dad"), a comedy series that became a large success in Argentina, giving Santa Cruz his first taste of fame. Fernández de Rosa and Cherri would later on share starring credits with Santa Cruz in Chiquititas, arguably the most successful Hispanic soap opera of all times. Chiquititas ran on Argentine television for six years, a record for a Hispanic soap opera show.
Santa Cruz finished 1991 playing a small character in another telenovela, Cosecharás tu Siembra ("Your Seeds Will Grow").
During 1992, Santa Cruz took off some time from acting on screen, but he returned in 1993, acting in a film named Yo Quiero Gritar Que te Amo ("I Want to Scream That I Love You"), where he acted alongside Andrea Del Boca.
Santa Cruz began 1994 acting alongside Venezuelan-Argentine actress Grecia Colmenares and Osvaldo Laport in the international hit Milagros, which was shown in the United States by Telemundo, thus providing Santa Cruz with his first exposure to Spanish-speaking audiences in the U.S. He also worked in Inconquistable Corazón ("Uncoquerable Heart").
In 1995, Chiquititas began to play on Argentine television. Santa Cruz, meanwhile, acted in Dulce Ana, which was seen in some English speaking countries as "Sweet Ana".
His former co-worker Fernández de Rosa had been appointed Telefé's casting director, so he was in charge of choosing the actors for Chiquititas. He chose Santa Cruz to play the character of Guillermo Maza. Santa Cruz entered Chiquititas in 1996.
Playing Guillermo Maza, alias "Guille", Santa Cruz obtained international fame when Chiquititas became the number one show in its time slot in many Latin American countries, as well as in Israel and Russia. Later on, he would also play Javier Maza in the series. Maza remained in Chiquititas until 1999. Having recorded a CD and appeared on many covers of the Chiquititas magazine, he took a break from acting after leaving Chiquititas.
In 2002, Santa Cruz acted (and, in many cases, was reunited) with fellow Chiquititas stars Camila Bordonaba, Felipe Colombo, Dario Lopilato, Lopilato's sister Luisana, and Georgina Mollo, and he acted alongside noted actors such as Catherine Fulop and Diego García in Rebelde Way, another major Argentine television hit.
During the 2000s, Santa Cruz got more exposure in the United States, as Chiquititas began to be shown there on Telefé's international satellite network.