Judith Fernández

Beginnings and Acacias 38 (2016–2021)

Fernández made her television debut in Augasquentes, a comedy produced by Ficción Producciones for Televisión de Galicia and directed by Jorge Cassinello and Alfonso Zarauza, which premiered in October 2016. Headed by María Vázquez as a judge returning to her home village after twenty years, it was shot in Cuntis and at the pazo de Cibrán in Vedra; Fernández and Andrés Collantes were the two child performers in the cast.^[5]

In January 2021 she joined Acacias 38, the daily period drama on La 1, which from episode 1,403 introduced a five-year time jump into the 1920s together with a group of new residents.^[6] She played Azucena, daughter of Hortensia (Amaia Lizarralde) and niece of the established character Rosina, presented as an educated young woman with little in common with the rest of her family.^[7]

Film and television roles (2022–2024)

In 2022 Fernández appeared in Santo, a Spanish–Brazilian Netflix thriller created by Carlos López and headed by Raúl Arévalo and Bruno Gagliasso,^[8] playing Lucía, the daughter of Arévalo's character.^[9] The same month brought her first feature film, La casa entre los cactus, the directorial debut of Carlota González-Adrio, adapted by Paul Pen from his own novel. Set in the 1970s in the Canary Islands, it follows a couple played by Ariadna Gil and Daniel Grao who raise five daughters in isolation while concealing a secret; Fernández played the eldest sister, Lis.^[10]

She also worked on the Movistar Plus+ series La Unidad and Apagón, and in 2023 played Vanessa Muñoz in Mía es la venganza, a daily drama created by Aurora Guerra for Telecinco that was cancelled during its first season.^[11] In 2024 she was Elvira, one of three students who befriend the middle-aged rapper played by Julián López, in the comedy Matusalén, released on 5 April,^[12] and played Alba in El caso Asunta, the Netflix miniseries about the murder of Asunta Basterra starring Candela Peña and Tristán Ulloa, released on 26 April.^[13]

Rondallas and Las hijas de la criada (2025–2026)

In October 2025 Fernández played Elena in Entrepreneurs, a satire of Spanish start-up culture created by and starring the comedy duo Pantomima Full, whose ten-episode first season was released on Disney+ on 23 October.^[14] She then took the role of Clara Alonso Comesaña in Las hijas de la criada, a period drama adapted from the novel by Sonsoles Ónega that won the 2023 Planeta Prize. Premiered on Atresplayer on 30 November 2025, it follows the Valdés family in a Galician manor house from 1900 onwards; Fernández's character, marked from birth by a concealed event, becomes the closest ally of the matriarch played by Verónica Sánchez.^[15] The eight-episode series was directed by Menna Fité and Alejo Flah and was also scheduled for later broadcast on Antena 3.^[16]

Her first leading role in a feature film came with Rondallas, alongside Javier Gutiérrez, María Vázquez, Carlos Blanco and Tamar Novas. Set in a Galician fishing village two years after a shipwreck, the film follows the revival of the local rondalla, a traditional ensemble of strings, percussion and bagpipes; Fernández plays Andrea, a teenager whose father died in the wreck and who gradually takes the lead of the group. After festival screenings including the San Sebastián International Film Festival, it opened in Spanish cinemas on 1 January 2026 and had drawn more than 150,000 admissions by mid-January, with Fernández and her co-star Fer Fraga widely described as the breakthrough performers of the year.^[17]

At the 81st Medals of the Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos, held on 23 February 2026 in Madrid, the Best New Actress award went to Blanca Soroa for Los domingos; Rondallas received the Medalla Platino Educa de la Solidaridad in the fiction category, which Fernández and Fraga collected on behalf of Sánchez Arévalo.^[18]

Film

Television