Alejandro "Álex" de la Iglesia Mendoza (born 4 December 1965) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter, producer and former comic book artist.

Maverick director Subsequently, De la Iglesia has been combining productions aimed at an international audience, with others closer to the Spanish cultural taste, but all displaying his sublimely witted, often dark, and sometimes even grotesque, sense of humor.

Many veteran Spanish actors and actresses have worked under his direction, from Carmen Maura to María Asquerino, as well as several Hollywood stars like Rosie Pérez, Elijah Wood, John Hurt or Salma Hayek.

He began shooting it in the fall of 2012 with an extensive cast that included Carmen Maura, Macarena Gómez, Hugo Silva, Mario Casas, Carolina Bang, Terele Pávez and Pepón Nieto, and some cameos by Santiago Segura and Carlos Areces.

[7] De la Iglesia then surprised everyone with Mi gran noche (“My Big Night”, 2015), an ensemble film that marked Spanish singer superstar Raphael’s comeback to cinema after 40years.

Raphael heads a huge cast that included Mario Casas, Pepón Nieto, Blanca Suárez, Carlos Areces, Luis Callejo, Carmen Machi, Jaime Ordóñez, Santiago Segura, Enrique Villén, Hugo Silva, Carolina Bang, Terele Pávez, Carmen Ruiz, Marta Guerras, Ana Polvorosa, Toni Acosta and Luis Fernández, among many others.

[8] In 2017, Álex de la Iglesia released two films: El Bar, with several of his already regular actors (Blanca Suárez, Mario Casas, Carmen Machi, Pepón Nieto, Terele Pávez), and the remake of the Italian film Perfetti sconosciuti, titled in Spanish Perfectos desconocidos (“Perfect Stragers” internationally), with another impressive cast including Belén Rueda and Eduardo Noriega.

Created to nurture a new generation of bold, daring and innovative filmmakers, Pokeepsie films have produced an impressive slate of successful features, such as Paper House’s director Koldo Serra’s 70 Bin Ladens (“70 Big Ones”), Eduardo Casanova’s multi-awarded Pieles (“Skins”) and La Pietà (released theatrically on January 13th, 2022), Esteban Roel and Juanfer Andrés’ Musarañas (“Shrew’s nest”), starred by the outstanding Macarena Gómez, Alex de la Iglesia’s El bar, Ignacio Tatay’s The Chalk Line (nº2 non-English language film in Netflix for 2 weeks in October 2022), Jaume Balagueró’s Venus, and recently HBO’s massive hit 30 monedas (“30 coins”), seasons 1 and 2.

The film is called El cuarto pasajero (“Four’s a crowd”) and stars Blanca Suárez, Ernesto Alterio, Alberto San Juan and Rubén Cortada.

[13] Álex de la Iglesia was elected president of the Academy of Cinematograhic Arts of Spain on June 21, 2009, after presenting himself as candidate — together with Icíar Bollaín and Emilio A. Pina — to replace Ángeles González-Sinde after her appointment as Minister of Culture.

On February 14, 2010, De la Iglesia gave his most celebrated speech as president of the Film Academy at the Goya Awards gala, recalling that it was necessary to create laws "that protect the coexistence of all sectors, and that also includes filmmaking".

The most prominent is Santiago Segura, to whom he offered his first role in a feature film, but there have also been frequent appearances by Mario Casas and Carlos Areces, as they were the sorely missed Terele Pávez and Álex Angulo.