[3] From 1997 to 1999, she portrayed Carlota in 418 episodes of teen daily television series Al salir de clase.

[6] In Fill Me with Life (2000), she delivered her first leading performance in a film,[7] portraying twentysomething María alongside Unax Ugalde in a tragic story about the descent into drugs and prostitution in Madrid.

[9] For her performance in the latter film portraying Rocío, an "upper-class mommy's girl and husband-hunter", she earned a nomination for the Goya Award for Best New Actress.

[10][11] She obtained critical acclaim for playing Joanna of Castile in Vicente Aranda's period drama Mad Love.

[16][17] Despite the success she had massed with Mad Love, López de Ayala did not meaningfully work in the Spanish film industry from 2001 to 2005.