He was born in Seville to an aristocratic family; his younger brother Claudio, with whom he spent some time in Guadalajara, Mexico, went on to become an archdeacon and inquisitor.

[3] Cueva's plays draw on a mixture of classical, historical and fictional themes, often adapting stories from ballads and medieval chronicles.

This step is considered to be a significant advance in Spanish theatre[2] and proved highly influential on later playwrights such as Lope de Vega.

[2] Later works of poetry included the Obras (1582), a collection of erotic lyrics in the style of Petrarch, Caro Febeo de romances historiales (1587), which Bartolomé José Gallardo called "the worst [thing] that I have read in Castilian", and the epic poem Conquista de la Bética, which Philip Ward describes as "tedious".

[1] Cueva also produced a treatise in verse titled Ejemplar poético, o Arte poética española, in which he discusses poetry and historical drama.