MUMBAI: A month before her upcoming film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides hits the screen on 20 May, Penelope Cruz received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 1 April.

Cruz is involved in the following charities: Worldwide (RED) campaign lead by Bono and Bobby Shiver, Artists for Peace and Justice in Haiti (APJ), UNICEF The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). She had the honor of working with Mother Teresa‘s Missionaries of Charity; volunteering in a leprosy clinic in India and she also worked with the Dalai Lama for the House of Tibet in Spain. 

An Academy Award winner, Cruz has proven herself to be one of the most versatile actresses by playing a variety of compelling characters, and most recently, becoming the first actress from Spain to win an Oscar.

First introduced to American audiences in the Spanish films Jamon, Jamon and Belle Epoque in 1998, Cruz starred in her first English language film The Hi-Lo Country for director Stephen Frears. In the following year, Cruz won the Best Actress award at the 13th Annual Goya Awards given by the Spanish Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for her role in Fernando Trueba‘s The Girl of Your Dreams.

Confirming her status as an international actress, Cruz landed a series of coveted roles. She appeared in Billy Bob Thornton‘s All the Pretty Horses, Fina Torres‘ Woman on Top, Alejandro Amenabar‘s Open Your Eyes and Maria Ripoli‘s Twice Upon a Yesterday.