Manuel Ríos Fernández (born 17 December 1998) is a Spanish actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Patrick Blanco in the Netflix teen drama series Elite.[1]
Early life and career
Manuel Ríos Fernández was born on 17 December 1998 in Calzada de Calatrava, a small town in the province of Ciudad Real.[2] With a great passion for singing, dancing and acting from a very young age, Ríos made his television debut at nine when he was cast in the reality show Cantando en familia after his mother received a phone call from a local television looking for young talents.[3] In the following year, he participated as a dancer in ¡Tu sí que vales!, a Spanish talent show.[4] At that age, he also began uploading covers of famous songs on YouTube, earning him the nickname "the Spanish Justin Bieber".[5] Ríos studied classical ballet and street dance and won the Spanish Championships in hip hop dance as a member of the dance crew Sweet Babies.[6] He was also a member of Parchís in its 2012 relaunch, a children's musical band with which he released an album and toured throughout Spain.[6][7] In addition, he portrayed Gavroche in the musical Les Misérables at the Lope de Vega Theatre in Madrid.[8]
In 2013, Ríos signed a 6-year contract with a Grammy Award-winning music producer Richy Peña, and moved with his parents and brother to the United States to work with an American team.[3] His work on his debut EP has been postponed due to his acting career, but he has confirmed he will release it in the future.[9] Ríos characterized the songs he had written as alternative pop with dark elements.[10] He can play the guitar and piano and has cited Lorde and Frank Ocean as some of his musical influences.[11][12]
Ríos began his acting career in 2014 as Mauricio Martínez in the Spanish TV series Chiringuito de Pepe[13] and made his international breakthrough in 2021, when he landed the role of Patrick Blanco in the Netflix series Elite, joining the cast for the fourth, fifth, and sixth season.[14] In February 2023, he received a nomination for Best TV Actor at the 2022 Fotogramas de Plata for his performance in Elite.[15]
Just days after attending the 2022 MET Gala in New York, Ríos began filming the Netflix psychological thriller series El Silencio (Muted).[16] He was also cast in the lead role in La edad de la ira, an adaptation of the bestselling eponymous novel by Nando Lopez.[17] He portrays Marcos, an introverted teenager growing up in a toxic family environment, who is accused of murdering his father.[18] In 2022, Ríos was cast as a balladeer in short film Strange Way of Life, directed by fellow Calzada de Calatrava native Pedro Almodóvar and which premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.[19][20]
In October 2023, Ríos and stylist Marc Forné founded the unisex fashion brand Carrer, with Ríos serving as its creative director.[21][22]
