Ruth Gabriel

Ruth Gabriel is a Spanish actress who played Ruth in the Spanish Sesame Street co-production Barrio Sésamo.

Ruth Sánchez Bueno was born on July 10th, 1975 in San Fernando, Cádiz (Spain). She began her career as an actress with 1981 TV series La Cometa Blanca, along with Mari Luz Olier and Alfonso Vallejo. During this years, Ruth's stage name was Ruth Abellán. Her character shared her first name.

Lolo Rico, director of La Cometa Blanca, inserted sketches from Sesame Street in the series, which would provide the young audiences with a reference.

In 1983, Sesame Street had its second chance in Televisión Española. Ruth Abellán reprised her role from La Cometa Blanca during all the time of the series, 1983 till 1987. Then, suddenly, Ruth Sánchez Bueno simply disappeared from the public eye.

She reappeared seven years later, now as a beautiful 19-year-old actress. She was the main female character for Imanol Uribe's acclaimed movie Días Contados (1994) (Internationally known as Numbered Days, Running Out of Time or With the Days Numbered in Hong Kong). Her character was Charo, a heroine-addicted teenage prostitute living in Madrid. She mets and begins a relationship with an ETA member (Carmelo Gómez) who has came to Madrid to commit terrorist action. It was a thriller about hopelessness and heterogeneous relationships, showing characters without a future, and it was an immediate success.

Ruth Sánchez Bueno, now re-Christened Ruth Gabriel, won the Newcomer Award of the Spanish Actors Union, defeating Elvira Mínguez and Candela Peña (for the same movie), and also won the Ondas Award, tied with both of her partners for the movie.

She was nominated to both Best New Actress and Lead Actress Award of the IX edition of the Goyas, the most prestigious film awards in Spain. Again, she won Best New Actress defeating Mínguez and Peña, and took the price from hands of Sergio Cabrera and Cristina Marcos. However, she lost lead actress to Cristina Marcos herself, nominated for Todos los hombres sois iguales (1994).

Suddenly a star, Ruth Gabriel had more than a few offers. During 1995 she worked in Sinais of fogo, a coproduction of Spain, Portugal and France, and also under Antonio Eceiva in Felicidades Tovarich, which allowed her to meet and work with prestigious Spanish actor Francisco Rabal.

Not one to reject TV series if they are interesting, she worked from 1996 to 1998 in Querido maestro, with more veteran stars such as Imanol Arias, Ana Duato or Emma Suárez. However, this series was not an exclusive projection for her.

During 1997, she managed to work on another TV series, this time mini series Nostromo, another coproduction featuring star Colin Firth. Joseph Conrad's Nostromo was nominated for the ALMA Award to Outstanding Latino/a Cast in a Made-for-Television Movie or Mini-Series, but coud not reach it.

In this same year, she also appeared in a role in Enrico Colletti's Il Tocco: la sfida (aka Rack Up or The Cuemaster), a Spanish-Italian coproduction starring Franco Nero. She also had a chance to work with acclaimed director Agustí Villaronga in 99.9, a movie that was a success for the critics both because of the director and the cinematography.

Late 1990s showed a decrease of her activity, so that she featured only in drama Doña Bárbara (1998) and an appearance as herself in According to Occam's Razor (1999). She then passed to secondary roles, not achieving the success that her early awards suggested.

She worked again with Villaronga for Sinfín (2002), a thriller also featuring María Barranco and Terele Pávez.

On 2003, she appeared in nominated projects, such as mini series La Mari (nominated for the best TV movie to the Premios de la Academia de las Ciencias y las Artes de Televisión) and Historia de Estrella (same nomination). She also worked under Rafael Alcázer for Besos de gato, nominated to the best direction in the Málaga Film Festival.

As for now, Ruth Gabriel is still an active and young actress who probably can give some interesting surprises, although she does not seem to be interested in a return to muppet series.