García was born on January 19, 1982[7] in Málaga, Costa del Sol, Andalusia, Spain.[4] He attended the Colegio Público Ramón Simonet for his primary education. As a teenager, García played indoor soccer and was his school team's goalkeeper.[8][1] He was discovered at seventeen (17) years old by Manuel Beltrán, a director of a talent management agency in Málaga, while García was commencing studies for a business management degree at the University of Málaga.[1][9]
His foray into modeling and beauty pageant competitions, and then consequently acting, was accidental and with much hesitation at first. García's parents, especially his mother, wanted him to pursue and complete his degree before anything else. His parents did not want him to get distracted from his studies.[9]
Career and business ventures
As a lover of wine, García is also a licensed sommelier with professional training from the Escuela de Cocina de Barcelona,[1] and official certification from the Federación de Asociaciones de Bármanes Españoles (FABE).[2]
As an entrepreneur and hotelier, García is one of three founding partners of the Hotel Málaga Premium. He is co-owner of La Terraza Oasis de Málaga, a terrace bar, and of the Alcazaba Premium Hostel Málaga.[2]
Pageantry
García first trained as a model under a talent management agency in Madrid. A few months after training, he was already walking the runways of several Spanish fashion designers and gracing the catalogs of popular menswear brands in Spain. García's decision to enter pageantry was, at first, made in jest.[1]
Mister Spain 2006
While García was working at his brother's bar in Torremolinos,[6] one of his friends dared him to enter the Mister Málaga 2006 competition, a precursory contest that chooses the Málagan representative to the Mister Spain competition. He disclosed in later interviews that the decision to compete at Mister Málaga and then Mister Spain 2006 was "just for fun... to have a good time," and that he did not expect to win both competitions.[1]
During the preliminaries, García and the other Mister World delegates competed in a number of events, including the sports and extreme challenge competitions where they had to hike and climb a mountain on Hainan island,[4] as well as practice kung fu and tai chi.[10] For the talent competition, García, a licensed sommelier, opted to demonstrate the wine decantation process.[4]
On March 31, 2007 at the finals held in Sanya City, China, García was declared Mister World 2007, besting 57 other contestants.[4]
As a former Mister World, García was a judge at the Mister World 2012 competition held in Kent, England.
Views on cosmetic surgery
When asked if he had anything done on his face, Garcia said in an interview that although he has nothing against cosmetic surgery, he has done no aesthetic surgery to enhance his appearance, and that the only surgical procedure he has ever had is an appendectomy, as he once suffered from acute appendicitis.[11]
