Vivian El Jaber

El Jaber was born in Buenos Aires in 1964.^[1][2] Her father was of Syrian descent and her mother was of Portuguese and Galician descent.^[9][10] She has at least two sisters—one younger and one older—and her father taught mathematical physics.^[11][5] She was raised in Palermo, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires.^[3]

She studied theatre with Roberto Saiz and Norman Briski^[9][12] and made her on-stage debut in 1986 at age 19 in the one-woman play De la pupila para adentro, which she had written.^{[13][14][15][10]} She frequented Parakultural in her early career.^[15] In 1991, she received a Bienal Arte Jóven award for her one-woman show F. E. A..^{[16][15][9][17]} In addition to acting onstage — including in productions such as La llamada (2019),^[18] Julio César (2022) and Tootsie (2023)^[9] — El Jaber is an occasional playwright. When not writing alone, her most frequent writing collaborator is Mónica Gazpio.^[16] El Jaber was part of the main cast of Martín Bossi's Impostor plays for five seasons.^[19][20]

El Jaber was a cast member of the sketch show De la cabeza in the early 1990s^[9] and was the only woman to remain on the cast of Cha Cha Cha until the end of its run.^{[14][21][10][3]} She later worked on Patito Feo as Dorinha (2007-2008),^[11][9] Alguien que me quiera as Coca (2010-2011),^[1] Farsantes as Isabel (2013-2014)^[7][15] and Guapas as Débora.^[19][5] In 2014, El Jaber appeared in an ad campaign against gender violence with Soledad Silveyra, Guillermina Valdés, and Laura Natalia Esquivel.^[22] She also played María in the 2024 film The Penguin Lessons and called working with Jonathan Pryce and Steve Coogan a "dream come true."^[11]

El Jaber has one daughter, Calia (born ca. 2010).^[10][15][23] She has had three major relationships in her life, each lasting seven years, with only one leading to marriage when she was age 21.^{[13][7][10][23]} She is a longtime resident of Villa Devoto^[9][23] and has a home in Miramar, where she has a painting studio.^[9][11][5]

In addition to the awards below, El Jaber was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Hugo Awards in 2019 for La llamada.^[47]

Vivian El Jaber at IMDb