Alejandro "Álex" Pina Calafi (born 22 June 1967) is a Spanish television producer, writer, and director, known for the crime drama Money Heist. Previous shows include Vis a vis, El embarcadero, and Los hombres de Paco.[1] His newest series, Sky Rojo, started filming in November 2019,[2] while White Lines, a co-production for Netflix with The Crown team, first streamed on 15 May 2020.[3] The Hollywood Reporter listed Pina in their "Top International Showrunners of 2019".[4]

Álex Pina
Born
Alejandro Pina Calafi

(1967-06-23) 23 June 1967 (age 57)
Pamplona, Spain
Alma materUniversity of Navarra
Occupations
  • Producer
  • screenwriter
  • director
Years active1996–present

Biography

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Born in Pamplona in 1967,[5] Pina began his career as a journalist in the press such as Diario Vasco and Diario de Mallorca and later in the Europa Press Agency.

Between 1993 and 1996, he worked as a scriptwriter and editor for Videomedia until he then joined Globomedia in 1996.

In 1997, at the same production company, he started his career as a screenwriter in the television series Más que amigos, from there, he began to play the roles of creator and executive producer in iconic Spanish series such as Los Serrano, Los hombres de Paco, and El barco.[6]

At the end of 2016, after the launch of Vis a vis by Antena 3, Pina left Globomedia and founded Vancouver Media, his own production company. The first production was La Casa de Papel (Money Heist), which premiered on Antena 3 on 2 May 2017 with more than four million viewers.[7] The series was distributed worldwide by Netflix and became the biggest success of his career, leading to the signing of an exclusive contract with the streaming platform for the creation and production of an original series.[8] In 2020 Alex Pina produced White Lines.[9]

Filmography

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Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes
2009 Fuga de cerebros No Yes Executive
2010 A Tres Metros Sobre el Cielo No No Yes Also song writer: "A Ras del Cielo"
2011 Fuga de cerebros 2 No Yes Yes
2012 Tengo ganas de ti No No Yes
2014 Kamikaze Yes Yes Yes Also song writer: "La Rusia" and "Karadijstan libre"

Television

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Year Title Creator Writer Executive Producer Director Notes
1997-1998 Más que amigos No Yes No No Wrote 10 episodes
1998-2002 Periodistas No Yes Yes No Wrote 55 episodes
2003-2008 Los Serrano Yes Yes Yes Uncredited 146 episodes; Co-created with Daniel Écija

Wrote 6 episodes and directed unknown episodes

2005-2010 Los Hombres de Paco Yes Yes Yes Yes 118 episodes; Co-created with Daniel Écija

Wrote 12 episodes and co-directed one

2011-2013 El Barco Yes Yes Yes No 41 episodes; Co-created with Ivan Escobar
2014 Bienvenidos al Lolita Yes Yes Yes No TV-Miniseries; Co-created with Fernando González Molina and Esther Martínez
2015-2016 Vis a Vis Yes Yes Yes No Creator: 51 episodes

Showrunner from 2015-2016 from 35 episodes and wrote 20 episodes

2017-2021 La Casa de Papel Yes Yes Yes No 41 episodes;

Wrote 33 episodes

2019-2020 El Embarcadero Yes Yes Yes No 16 episodes; Co-created with Esther Martínez Lobato
2020 White Lines Yes Yes Yes No 10 episodes
Vis a Vis: El Oasis Yes No No No 8 episodes
2021 Los Hombres de Paco: El Regreso Yes No No No 15 episodes
2021-2023 Sky Rojo Yes Yes Yes No 16 episodes
2023 Berlin Yes Yes Yes No Co-created with Esther Martínez Lobato; 8 episodes

References

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  1. ^ Ramos, Dino-Ray (12 July 2018). "Netflix Sets Overall Deal With 'La Casa De Papel' Creator Alex Pina". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  2. ^ "Silvestre, Etxeandia y Auquer, en la nueva serie española de Netflix". elperiodico.com (in Spanish). 14 November 2019. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  3. ^ Finnis, Alex (5 May 2020). "White Lines cast: Netflix release date, who stars with Daniel Mays and what the new series is about". iNews. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  4. ^ Roxborough, Scott (25 November 2019). "TV's Global Elites: Meet the Top International Showrunners of 2019". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  5. ^ Navarro, Núria (17 November 2019). "Álex Pina: "Soy un hedonista militante, como Berlín"". El Periódico.
  6. ^ "Álex Pina, creador de Periodistas o Vis a vis, deja Globomedia. Noticias de Televisión". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 15 November 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  7. ^ Moreno, Adriano (3 May 2017). "'La Casa de Papel' barre en su estreno con más de 4 millones de espectadores". Cadena SER (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  8. ^ Solà Gimferrer, Pere (17 April 2018). "'La casa de papel' es la serie de habla no inglesa más vista de la historia de Netflix". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  9. ^ "Everything you need to know about new Netflix series White Lines". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
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