Ben Cura

Ben Cura (born 30 September 1988) is a British-Argentine actor and director of film, television and theatre.

Ben Cura
Ben Cura in 2013
Born	José Ben Cura (1988-09-30) 30 September 1988 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Nationality	British, Argentine, Italian
Education	BA (Hons) in Classical Acting for the Professional Theatre
Alma mater	London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2011–present
Spouse(s)	Andrea Deck ​ ( m. 2013; div. 2015)
Parent(s)	José Cura Silvia Ibarra

Early life

José Ben Cura[1] was born in Buenos Aires, the son of Argentine tenor/conductor José Cura. When he was a year old, he moved to Santo Stefano Belbo, Italy, where his father's grandfather was from. The family first lived in a convent while his father struggled to find work as an opera singer. He has two younger siblings, Yazmín and Nicolás.[1]

The family moved to France when he was 6, and then to Spain when he was 11. During this time, he frequently travelled with his parents around the world.[2]

Cura's first acting role came at age 9, as a supernumerary in a production of La Forza del Destino at the Opéra de Marseille, France. Whilst living in Paris, he received formal piano and solfège training. He subsequently attended the New York Film Academy in Paris, France before eventually training and graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 2011 with a bachelor's degree with honours in professional acting.[3][4][5]

Career

Cura made his film debut in a British independent film Comes a Bright Day, appearing shortly after in Comedy Central's series Threesome and Bernard Rose's film The Devil's Violinist.

He made his West End debut playing Angel in the original cast of Jennifer Saunders' musical Viva Forever at the Piccadilly Theatre in London, UK. He was later cast as Seve Ballesteros in British golf film Dream On.[6]

Aged 24, he made his directorial debut with a film adaptation of August Strindberg's play Creditors.[7] for which he also wrote the screenplay and played one of the lead characters, Freddie Lynch.[8][9] Later that year, he starred in the UK premiere of award-winning American play Next Fall at the Southwark Playhouse in London, UK.

In April 2013, he co-founded London-based production company Tough Dance Ltd. with actress and producer Andrea Deck.[10][11] The company's first production was award-winning feature film Creditors. In 2015, he was cast in US series The Royals as recurring character Holden. He later went on to star in British film White Island set in Ibiza, and based on the novel A Bus Could Run You Over written by Colin Butts, alongside Billy Zane and Billy Boyd.

Cura's directorial debut Creditors world-premiered at the Nordic International Film Festival in New York City on 31 October 2015.[12][13] The festival awarded it with an Honorable Mention in the Best Nordic Narrative Feature category.[14] Latin Post film critic David Salazar called the film "A triumphant debut"[15] Blazing Minds film critic Susanne Hodder said of the actors that "all give compelling performances, bringing their characters to life and giving them depth",[16] Screen Relish film critic Stuie Greenfield said that "Creditors is a beautiful, sometimes angry and surprising film that brings with it strong performances from the entire cast as well as an unexpected yet welcome twist"[17] while Movie Marker film critic Darryl Griffiths said that "Creditors is an incisive and accomplished piece of filmmaking [...], possessing a rich, powerful psychology that instills an unnerving modern-day relevance to age-old material."[18] Creditors received over ten awards, including Best Feature, Leading Actor, and Script/Writer for Cura.[19]

Later that year, Cura was cast as a series regular in ITV/Netflix crime noir drama Marcella penned by The Bridge writer Hans Rosenfeldt.[20][21] The series premiered on UK television in April 2016, followed by a worldwide release on Netflix in July 2016.[22][23] and Simon West's action/comedy feature film Gun Shy opposite Antonio Banderas and Olga Kurylenko.[24][25][26]

In 2017, Cura was cast as CIA operative Philip Shafer in French historical war movie 15 minutes de guerre (renamed L'Intervention), directed by Fred Grivois. Later that year, he played the role of Steve in the screen adaptation of British stage play Life is a Gatecrash, renamed Gatecrash and directed by Lawrence Gough, opposite Olivia Bonamy, Anton Lesser, and Sam West.

In 2018, Cura guest-starred in Season 2 of CBS's Ransom and the first season of new TV series The Rook, opposite Olivia Munn.

In 2019, he was cast in Nicholas Wright's new stage play 8 Hotels directed by Richard Eyre, world-premiering at the Chichester Festival Theatre, playing the lead role of José Ferrer opposite Tory Kittles, Emma Paetz, and Pandora Colin, opening August 7 of that year to excellent reviews: "Joe, played masterfully by Ben Cura, is wonderful as the philanderer who can accept his wife's adultery but not her lover's flaunting of it";[27] "Jose Ferrer [...] Ben Cura, who captures him very well, has a wonderful mutually mistrustful good-pals-act with the impressive Kittles";[28] "Ben Cura is excellent as Ferrer [...] with charisma to spare";[29] "Ben Cura plays José Ferrer as a much disappointed jobbing actor [...] playing Iago for peanuts opposite the better paid Robeson [...] This Ferrer becomes increasingly jealous of Robeson and is convinced that his wife, Uta Hagen [...] is having an affair with the charismatic Robeson (she is), which fills him with an angry cynicism that he can barely control with his erudite and scathing humour that cannot disguise his underlying lack of confidence. Cura's Ferrer is a brilliant creation: a brilliant Iago in fact."[30]

Personal life

Cura was married to actress Andrea Deck from 2013 until their divorce in 2015.[31]

Dated actress Olga Kurylenko but they broke up just before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Filmography

Actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Threesome	Richie's Pull	TV Series; 1 episode
2012	Comes a Bright Day	Mr Sullivan
2013	The Devil's Violinist	Charlotte's Husband
2015	The Royals	Holden Avery	TV Series; 5 episodes
2015	Creditors	Freddie Lynch
2016	White Island	Bartolo
2016	Dream On	Seve Ballesteros
2016	Marcella	Matthew Neil	TV Series; 6 episodes
2017	Gun Shy	Juan Carlos
2017	Silent Witness	Gustavo Aguirre	TV Series; 2 episodes
2018	Postcards from London	Caravaggio
2018	15 minutes de guerre	Philipp Shafer
2018	Gatecrash	Steve
2018	Ransom	Rafael Salazar	TV Series; 1 episode
2019	The Rook	The Cobbler	TV Series; 1 episode
2020	The Mallorca Files	José Rey	TV Series; 1 episode

Director

Year	Title	Notes
2015	Creditors

Writer

Year	Title	Notes
2015	Creditors

Stage

• 2012: Viva Forever by Jennifer Saunders at the Piccadilly Theatre London[32][33][34]
• 2014: Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts at the Southwark Playhouse London[35]
• 2019: 8 Hotels by Nicholas Wright at the Chichester Festival Theatre Chichester[36][37]

Voice work

• 2012: Swimming with Piranhas Radio Documentary for BBC Radio 4[38][39]
• 2014: Alien: Isolation by The Creative Assembly distributed by SEGA and produced by Twentieth Century Fox[40]
• 2015: Credit Card Baby Radio Drama written by Annie Caulfield for BBC Radio 4, directed by Mary Ward-Lowery[39]
• 2020?: ‘’Camino de Santiago’’ Sleep Story for Calm App [need reference]

References

1. Scalisi, Cecilia (21 July 2013). "Cura versus Cura". La Nacion. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
2. "I Think An Actor, director, Writer or Anyone Creative's Most Important Attribute is Gut Instinct by CREDITORS Movie Ben Cura". Film Courage. 29 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
3. Salazar, David (24 September 2013). "Exclusive Interview: Ben Cura Talks Directorial Debut 'Creditors,' Artistic Development, Inspirations". Latinos Post. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
4. Hall, Katie-Jane (12 October 2013). "Kickstarter Interview: Creditors". Critics Associated. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
5. "BA (Hons) in Professional Acting". LAMDA. Archived from the original on 25 June 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
6. "Dream on on IMDB". Retrieved 10 November 2013.
7. "Take a Trip to the Tiny Island that Time Forgot". This is Total Essex. 16 October 2013. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
8. "Creditors (2015) – IMDbPro".
9. "British Council Film: Creditors". Retrieved 17 January 2015.
10. "Tough Dance". Tough Dance. Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
11. "Tough Dance [gb]". Internet Movie Database.
12. Jamie Ellin Forbes. "Fine Art Magazine Blog". fineartmagazineblog.blogspot.co.uk.
13. "Nordic International Film Festival 2015". um.dk. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
14. "Winners 2015". Nordic International Film Festival.
15. "'Creditors' Movie Review: Ben Cura Creates a Visually Stimulating Adaptation of Strindberg's Great Play". Latin Post.
16. Susanne Hodder. "Creditors Movie Review – Intelligent Thought-Provoking Film". Blazing Minds.
17. "CREDITORS Review". ScreenRelish.
18. Darryl Griffiths. "MM Supports – Creditors (Ben Cura)". Movie Marker.
19. "Awards & Press". CREDITORS.
20. Darryl Griffiths. "Interview – Director Ben Cura/Actress Andrea Deck (Creditors)". Movie Marker.
21. "Anna Friel leads the cast of new ITV drama Marcella". "ITV Press Centre".
22. Plunkett, John (4 April 2016). "Netflix to air The Bridge creator's Marcella worldwide". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
23. "Ben Cura". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
24. "Antonio Banderas y elenco de Salty dan detalles de la cinta rodada en Chile – LA TERCERA". latercera.com. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
25. "La imagen de rockero de Antonio Banderas". El Nacional (Caracas). Archived from the original on 21 October 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
26. "Antonio Banderas luce irreconocible en su nueva película". Mundiario. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
27. Ian Murray. "Review: 8 Hotels (Minerva Theatre, Chichester)". WhatsOnStage.com.
28. Paul Taylor. "8 Hotels, Minerva Theatre review: Elegantly provocative and alive with wiry delicacy". The Independent.
29. Phil Hewitt. "8 Hotels offers absorbing portrait of Paul Robeson at Chichester Festival Theatre". Chichester Observer.
30. Steve Newman. "8 Hotels — A New Play by Nicholas Wright". Medium.
31. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4459896/bio#trivia
32. Purves, Libby (12 December 2012). "Theatre review: Viva Forever!". The Times. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
33. Martland, Lisa (12 December 2012). "Theatre review: Viva Forever!". The Stage. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
34. Pritchard, Jim (14 December 2012). "Theatre review: Viva Forever!". Seen and Heard International. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
35. Shenton, Mark (4 August 2014). "Playbill: Geoffrey Nauffts Next Fall to Receive U.K. Premiere". Playbill. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
36. Meyer, Dan (7 June 2019). "Playbill: Cast Set For Nicholas Wright's 8 Hotels in UK". Playbill. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
37. "Casting Announced For 8 Hotels". Playbill. 7 June 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
38. "BBC Radio 4 – Swimming with Piranhas". BBC.
39. "Ben Cura – Other works". Internet Movie Database.
40. matthew-brady-404-237416 (7 October 2014). "Alien: Isolation (Video Game 2014)". Internet Movie Database.

External links

• Ben Cura on IMDb