Who is Najwa Nimri, the actress raised in Bilbao who is a hit in La Revuelta

Wednesday, September 11, 2024, 12:21 PM | Updated 12:38 PM.

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Najwa Nimri Urrutikoetxea (Pamplona, ​​1972) can boast of being one of those responsible for Pablo Motos’ first defeat on television in years. Her interview yesterday with Broncano on ‘La Revuelta’ attracted more than two million viewers on average, making it the most watched programme on television. “You’re about to sweep him away,” she encouraged the presenter last night, while denouncing that she is banned from Pablo Motos’ programme.

The actress is currently promoting her new series, ‘Respira’, on Netflix, with which she hopes to repeat the success of ‘Vis a Vis’ and ‘La casa de papel’. These fictions gave her international fame, although in Spain she was already known thanks to her performance in ‘Salto al vacío’ (1995), by director Javier Calparsoro, with whom she married and had a son.

She began her acting career at the William Layton Laboratory in Madrid. Before that, during her childhood and adolescence in the Bilbao neighbourhood of Santutxu, she was drawn to music and was part of the choir at the Lauro ikastola. She began singing while listening to Los Stray Cats and Patti Smith, and enjoyed concerts by Negu Gorriak, Kortatu and Potato. She even gave a concert at the Kafe Antzokia! “That was very emotional because my friends from school came to see me,” Nimri revealed in an interview. She also practised ballet for five years at the Jon Beitia academy.

From those beginnings in the Santutxu neighbourhood, he has family memories of his housekeeper – that’s what he calls her today, as he recalled last night on ‘La Revuelta’ – and of his grandfather, who taught him the Basque language. Nimri is “completely bilingual”, although he regrets “that I don’t have many opportunities to speak” Basque. Only when he meets the girlfriend of a friend of his. “He worked hard so that I could learn. He didn’t have that opportunity and he always spoke very highly of the Basque language to us,” he revealed a few years ago.

Najwa Nimri’s career is full of successes and surprises. She has won two Ondas Awards and five Goya nominations; she has made a dozen films and worked with directors such as Julio Medem, Alejandro Amenábar and Icíar Bollaín, among others; and for almost two decades she formed a musical duo, called Najwajean, with producer Carlos Jean. Her latest work in the music world is a solo album ‘Ama’, in honour of her mother.

Najwa Nimri is as honest as ever, and always says what she thinks, although she prefers to avoid getting into political issues. However, she is in favour of “burning all the flags” because she cannot stand the fact that in Africa “children are dying of starvation”. “There are issues that I do not allow myself to be frivolous about”

Najwa Nimri is the daughter of doctors. Her father came from Jordan and her paternal family, says the actress, “have a very high cultural level; they know five languages ​​and have shown a great capacity to adapt to changes.” Nimri also has two brothers, although both live outside Bilbao. That is why she does not visit the Basque Country much anymore. “It is true that I have relatives and friends on my grandfather’s and mother’s side, but the truth is that I do not go there often.”

From her time in Bizkaia, she remembers, in addition to her passion for music, her fondness for sports such as skateboarding and surfing. Najwa Nimri once defined how it was to combine film and music: “In music I am with myself and in film I get into the skin of the character and submit to the orders of another. When I have spent a lot of time alone with myself, it is good to be under the orders of another person. And after being at the mercy of another person for a long time, it is good for me to find myself.”

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