Asier Newman

Asier Newman was born on July 28, 1980. At 17 he was scouted by a London modeling agency and appeared in adverts for Cadbury's and Heinz. Soon after Asier took on the stage name Ash Newman. At 18, Asier landed the part of 'Arlo Dean' in the Channel 5 soap Family Affairs (1999-2000). He has also appeared on UK television such as: Casualty, The Bill and Footballer's Wives. In 2003 he joined the second series of CITV's BAFTA winning series "Sir Gadabout" playing the Spanish squire, Juan. In June 2004, he was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best Actor at the New York Film Festival for his lead role in his first feature film "Shem". Asier is the youngest person to win the award and previous winners of the accolade are Guy Pearce (for the movie "Woundings" in 2001) and Oscar winner Rod Steiger (for the movie "A Month of Sundays" in 2002). This award brought Asier to the attention of Penelope Cruz's agent, Katrina Bayonas, who later introduced him to the legendary award winning Spanish writer/director Julio Medem (Sex and Lucia, Lovers of the Artic circle, The red squirrel, Cows). Medem decided to cast Newman as the lead male role of "Anglo" an American boy who is an expert in hypnosis, in his psychological thriller "Caotica Ana" (Chaotic Ana) opposite newcomer Manuela Velles and British/French screen legend Charlotte Rampling. This in turn brought Asier to the attention of the Oscar nominated and award winning director Sean Ellis, who cast him in his horror/thriller movie "The Broken" opposite Lena Headey as her brother.