Ernesto Federico Alterio Bacaicoa (born 25 September 1970)[1] is an Argentine-Spanish film, theatre, and television actor.

[3] During Isabel Perón's government that took place very shortly after the birth of Malena, his father Héctor Alterio was threatened by Triple A, so the family went into exile and settled in Spain between 1974 and 1975 (where he was working at the time); years later, he obtained Spanish nationality.

[2] Encouraged to be like his father, Ernesto said that he went "sideways, skirting the edge of the pond so as not to fall into it: music, photography, history..." until he made the decision to accept being an actor.

[6] In 1996, he founded the theatre group 'Ración de oreja' (seed of 'Animalario') together with Alberto San Juan, Guillermo Toledo, and Nathalie Poza.

[7] He landed some early leading film roles under Fernando Colomo in the late 1990s with performances in The Stolen Years (for which he earned a nomination to the Goya Award for Best New Actor)[8] and Havana Quartet [es].