Fernando Tejero

Fernando Tejero Muñoz-Torrero was born in Córdoba on 24 February 1965.^[2] Since he was very young, Tejero knew he wanted to be an actor. However his father wanted Tejero to become a bullfighter.^[3]

Tejero worked with his parents in a seafood market. According to Tejero, during this period in his life, he had his first bad experience with showbusiness. He said he met a very famous Spanish actress with whom he had a cordial conversation. She ignored him and looked at him with contempt when she discovered he worked at a seafood market.^[3]

Tejero moved to Madrid to study dramatic art and joined the Cristina Rota acting school, where he met Alberto San Juan, who offered him a role in a play of the theatre group Animalario [es].^[4][5]

Tejero landed his feature film debut with a minor role in I Will Survive (1999).^[6] He went on to perform in bit parts in Spanish movies, slowly gaining recognition. In 2002, he appeared as a disabled man in Mondays in the Sun.^[5] In 2003, he was offered a role in Football Days,^[7] for which he won the Goya Award for best new actor.^[8] In that same year, during the casting of the now-famous Spanish ensemble comedy Aquí no hay quien viva, he was originally offered the part of Paco, the video store clerk.^[9] However, a new role was subsequently created for him, that of Emilio, the concierge; this allowed him a much more visible role than originally planned.^[10] With the show's great success, Tejero became a household name in Spain.^[11]

Since then, he has had leading roles in films, such as The Longest Penalty Shot in the World.^[12] He also covered the song "So payaso [es]" by Extremoduro with Melendi.^[13] In 2011 he participated in the video clip Gypsy Funky Love Me Do by Rosario Flores.^[14]

In 2012 he played Fermín Trujillo in La que se avecina, being Lola's father (Macarena Gómez) and Estela Reynolds' husband (Antonia San Juan).^[15] In February 2025 it was announced he left the series.^[16][17]

In 2025, he portrayed the dominican friar Juan Blanco de Paz [es] in the historical adventure in The Captive, describing his homophobic and homosexual character as "more of a survivor than a villain".^[18]

Tejero is openly gay,^[19] and during a time he dated Miguel Ortíz Vera, Mister Gay Spain 2012.^[20] They broke up in 2013,^[21] at the time when he announced he was gay.^[22] They reconciled days after.^[23] In 2016 he dated the musician Pascual Cantero,^[24] and they broke up one year later.^[25]