Willy Toledo

Guillermo Toledo Monsalve (Madrid, May 22, 1970), better known as Willy Toledo, is a Spanish actor, theater producer and political activist.

Biography

He is the son of Dr. José Toledo González, one of the pioneers of thoracic surgery in Spain, and Teresa Monsalve Aulestiarte. He has three older brothers, Marta, José and Íñigo.

He moved to the United States in 1987 to finish his studies. There he chose theater from among all the electives, he became interested in it and when he returned to Madrid he went through an infinity of different jobs (even as a bar porter) until he enrolled in Cristina Rota's school; there he met two other future actors, Ernesto Alterio and Alberto San Juan, with whom he founded the Animalario theater company shortly after. Some of his best-known plays are Alejandro y Ana and Hamelin .

He achieved great popularity in Spain playing Richard in the television series 7 vidas between 1999 and 2002, and he increased it in that last year with his role in the musical comedy The other side of the bed.

On February 1, 2003, together with Alberto San Juan, he presented the ceremony for the 17th edition of the Goya Awards, created by the Animalario group.

He has also taken part in the live comedy stand-up television program El club de la comedia. Between 2007 and 2009, he was the protagonist of the series Cuestión de sexo , in which he played Diego, a family man to whom misfortunes only happen.

He was the face of the Christmas 2007 advertising campaign for the video game World of Warcraft in Spain, along with Mr. T, Verne Troyer and William Shatner in the United States and Jean Claude Van Damme in France. In theater he has intervened, among other productions, in El montaplatos (2012), by Harold Pinter, together with Alberto San Juan. In addition, he has collaborated with Melani Olivares, a former sentimental partner, in the video clip Jipi de Ibiza , by the musical group El Tío Calambres .

In 2016, he starred in the Argentine series Psiconautas, broadcast by the TBS network throughout Latin America, in the role of Roberto, a Spaniard with economic problems who emigrates to Argentina and decides to pose as a psychologist. In 2018 the second season was released on Netflix.

Political activism

The defense of his left-wing political ideas has led him to be involved in various controversies in the Spanish media, on occasion having his Facebook profile deleted.

He is a strong defender of the Cuban revolution, as well as other left-wing movements in America, and has publicly defended them, generating polemics about the Spanish political system and comparing it with them.

In 2016, he reported that he was the victim of a labor ban that prevented him from working in Spain due to his political ideas.

In 2018 he was denounced by the Spanish Association of Christian Lawyers for an alleged crime of offending religious sentiments for using a foul expression that contained Catholic figures, one of them attacking the Marian dogma of virginity. The actor refused to appear in court twice, appealing to freedom of expression, for which he ordered his search and capture, being arrested on September 12 to make his statement. Finally on February 29, 2020 he was acquitted. In the appeal filed by the foundation, the actor was again acquitted.

Filmography

Cinema

Television

Awards

Goya Awards

Awards of the Union of Actors

Silver frames

ACE Awards

Festival de Cine de España de Toulouse

Feroz Awards