Paloma Baeza

Paloma Baeza (born 1 May 1975) is a British former actress and current director of English and Mexican descent. Her 2017 film Poles Apart won the BAFTA for best animated short film in 2018.

Baeza was born in London and spent her childhood in Mexico. Her Mexican father and her English mother were musicians who met in England. In 1975, when Baeza was five-months old, her parents married in London and they went to Mexico City. They divorced nine years later.

She returned to the UK with her mother in 1985, when she was nine. She began taking acting classes and appeared very early in the London theatres and British television productions. She studied English and Performing Arts at the University of Bristol.

Baeza has acted in a number of films and television programmes, including the 1998 film Far from the Madding Crowd playing the leading role of Bathsheba Everdene, and the 2008 BBC production The Passion as Mary Magdalene. She has also performed on stage, including Navy Pier in 2000 and The Flight Into Egypt in 1996.

Baeza directed a short feature film Watchmen in 2001, which she wrote with actor Cillian Murphy, who also starred. She directed the TV film The Window in 2006.Baeza decided to study animation at the National Film and Television School. For her graduation project, she made the stop-motion short film "Poles Apart", which won the BAFTA award for Best Animated Short Film in 2018.In 2018, she began directing a CG/live-action film, The Toymaker's Secret, written by her husband Alex Garland. She is also working on a project on the life of Frida Kahlo.

Baeza is married to screenwriter, novelist, and film director Alex Garland; they have two children.

• BAFTA award for British Short Animation – Poles Apart (2018)