Eduardo Kuno Becker Paz (born January 14, 1978) is a Mexican actor who has worked in telenovelas, Mexican cinema and U.S. Cinema, but is best known for his portrayal of Ruben Berrizabal in Soñadoras and Santiago Muñez in the football movie Goal! and following sequels.
Becker was born in Mexico City to Manuel Becker Cuellar and Maria del Rocío Bebie Paz Felix; his paternal grandfather was a wealthy businessman and his maternal grandfather was Spanish. He is of German and Spanish ancestry. He has two siblings, Gunther and Karine. Becker's career as an artist began at an early age, although not as an actor but as a musician. When he was six years old, he intended to become a professional violinist. After obtaining a scholarship, he travelled to Europe and began his studies in the famous Mozarteum of the city of Salzburg, Austria, where he spent several years taking violin lessons with internationally famous teachers such as Denes Zsigmondi and Ruggiero Ricci.
Kuno Becker in Goal!
At seventeen, however, Kuno made the decision to set aside his career as a violinist, in order to pursue what he now considers his greater passion, acting. He auditioned with more than 3,200 candidates, and was accepted as a student at the Centro de Educación Artística (CEA) of Televisa.
At the age of nineteen, after two years of drama studies, he obtained his first rôle in the telenovela Para Toda la Vida, where he starred in 120 episodes. He later participated in Pueblo Chico, Infierno Grande (with Verónica Castro and directed by José Alberto Castro), El Alma no Tiene Color (directed by Juan Osorio) Desencuentro (directed by Ernesto Alonso), Rencor Apasionado (directed by Lucero Suárez), Camila (directed byAngelli Nesma) and Soñadoras his first lead and breakthrough role. In April 2000 Becker concluded shooting the telenovela Mujeres Engañadas, his second lead role.
In addition to his work in television, Becker has participated in a couple theatre productions with Televisa. In 1998 he worked in the musical comedy En Roma el Amor es Broma. At the time he was appearing in the telenovela Soñadoras, Becker toured several Mexican cities with his one-man show Culpas Prohibidas. In only a few years and thanks to his talent and Televisa's high profile in Mexico, he has become one of the best-known young actors.
In cinema he provided the voice of Cale and Lightning Mcqueen for the spanish-dubbing of animated films Titan A.E.and Disney's Cars. He also appeared in the 1997 film La Primera Noche. In 2002 Becker starred in the film La hija del caníbal (Lucía, Lucía) opposite the Argentine actress Cecilia Roth, and in 2005 he portrayed the lead role of Santiago Munez in the film Goal!, Goal! 2: Living the Dream... and the final film in the trilogy Goal! 3 which is expected in summer 2009. Becker has said that he now wishes to concentrate solely on his film career, and is looking for new opportunities not only in Mexican films, but also internationally. Becker also starred in the historical Kazakhstani epic Nomad filmed in 2004. The production took two years to make and it hit screens in 2006. Other than playing violin and acting, Becker can also sing. He sang on the Primer amor... a mil por hora soundtrack in 2000 with his costars Ana Layevska and Valentino Lanus.
Kuno Becker in Lucía, Lucía
