Irene Cara

She won both the 1983 Best Original Song Academy Award and the 1984 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Flashdance (What A Feeling)". In the 2000s, Mónica has left her dancing career and achieved fame on her own in the youth-oriented TV series Un Paso Adelante. She played Coco Hernandez in Fame and Angela in romance thriller classic Aaron Loves Angela. This similarity has been used in Spanish TV ads. She sang the theme from Fame and "Flashdance (What A Feeling)". Her younger sister Mónica Cruz resembles her a lot. Both her parents were from Puerto Rico and in the early 1950's they migrated to the U.S.. The relationship started on the set of the film Vanilla Sky in which they appeared together.

Irene Cara (born Irene T Escalera March 18, 1959 in New York City) is a singer and actress. In early 2001 she began a three-year relationship with Tom Cruise. In 1999 she appeared in Pedro Almodóvar's Todo sobre mi madre which won an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film. She also appeared with Matt Damon in All The Pretty Horses. Cruz's first major films were Jamón, Jamón and the more widely known (in the US) Belle Époque, a film which won an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film.

She also was a TV presenter for the teen-oriented program La Quinta Marcha, in collaboration with Jesús Vázquez. She then started a relationship with Nacho Cano, a member of the group, which lasted for several years. She first achieved fame when she appeared in the video clip La fuerza del destino for the Spanish synth-pop group Mecano. Her parents named her after a song by Joan Manuel Serrat.

Born in Madrid, Spain, Cruz was a dancer as a child and young teen, and actually dropped out of high school to pursue dancing at the National Conservatory of Madrid (majoring in Classical Ballet) and theatre at Cristina Rota's School in New York (4 years). Penélope Cruz Sánchez, nicknamed simply Pe, (born April 28, 1974) is a Spanish actress. IMDB Profile (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004851/). Don't Move (2004).

Head in the Clouds (2004). Gothika (2003). Fanfan la tulipe (2003). Vanilla Sky (2001).

Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001). Blow (2001). Woman On Top (2000). All The Pretty Horses (1999).