Omar Ayuso is an up-and-coming Spanish actor who has already had a starring part in a popular Netflix show and has since appeared in significant movie roles as well. While most fans will recognize Ayuso for his role on the popular Netflix show Elite, the Madrid-born actor has been slowly adding a wider array of performances to his maturing filmography. Born on March 26, 1998, Ayuso began his acting career in 2018, first appearing in Danna Paola’s “Final Feliz” music video followed by Netflix’s hit high school drama series Elite and the short-lived El Continental.
Ayuso has continued to build his filmography with appearances in short films and the music video “Juro que” by Rosalía, though he has been gaining traction in feature films and prominent TV series. Ayuso has also found significant fame online with 3.9 million followers on Instagram, where he talks about his experience as a gay actor and frequently posts photos of himself and his Elite co-star Arón Piper, who are friends in real life as well as in the show. Ayuso has only just begun his career, but he’s already made a name for himself as a talented actor.
Ayuso appears in episode 7, “Réquiem… Mami”, of the short-lived series El Continental. The series is set in 1920s Madrid and takes place in the titular and fictional club. There, Andrea Abascal (Michelle Jenner) and Ricardo León (Álex García) control the illegal activities of their city and their rivalry/courtship drives the 10-episode series. El Continental was criticized for being too much like Peaky Blinders to the extent that it could be considered a knockoff.
Ver Tele! labelled El Continetal as (translated),
Ayuso is barely in the show and his character does not even have a name, so it’s not as if the young actor can be blamed for the season’s problems. Considering that Ayuso appeared in Elite the same year as El Continental, the collapse of the latter show was probably not a big deal for him. If anything, considering how his career turned out, it might serve as a nice piece of color on his resume in the future.
Los Farad is a Spanish language thriller series set during the Cold War in 1980. The Amazon Prime Video show stars Miguel Herrán as Oskar, an ambitious aerobics instructor from Aluche. On the Spanish coast’s pristine Costa de Sol, wealthy families like the Farads spend the money they make manufacturing weapons for the war on lavish lifestyles for themselves and their entourages. When Miguel falls for Sarah Farad (Susana Abaitua), a daughter of the family, he’s brought into the luxurious and backstabbing world of the rich.
Ayuso plays Habib Kaezem in episode 6, “Mirar para otro lado” and episode 7, “Una nueva especie de Farad”. The cast of Los Farad is excellent all across the board and even those who only appear for bit parts, like Ayuso, are part of a larger canvas. It’s a thrilling and exhilarating period piece that feels modern and Ayuso slots right into the tone of the show when he appears, along for the ride and not slowing anything down.
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In Les Paradis de Diane (Diane’s Paradise), the titular character, Diane (Dorothée de Koon) is a woman in Zurich, Switzerland suffering from post-partum depression after the birth of her child. Acting on instinct, Diane abandons her child with her boyfriend and leaves her family and home to go to the Spanish seaside town of Benidorm, a veritable Las Vegas in Spain. There, she meets many eccentric characters in the city and tries to understand what her role is as a mother and a woman both in her family and society as a whole.
It’s a hallucinogenic and occasionally disturbing movie with some of its dream-like aspects. Whether those sequences are unnerving or not, there’s no denying they’re all beautiful. Ayuso appears as a minor character, Adis, one of the residents of Benidorm, and he joins an ensemble of characters who are all part of Diane’s journey to understand if she made the right choice or a terrible mistake. It’s not a major role for Ayuso, but as the second feature film of his career, it’s a key entry in his acting journey.
The Elite Short Stories premiered before Elite season 4 and served as a warm-up to the show’s return. Four specials were released in one week in June 2021 with each containing three smaller episodes. Each special focuses on only a few characters in the summer before the school year and the episodes act as vignettes, loosely tied together. For that reason, they are necessarily not as exciting or important to the plot as the main seasons.
While some viewers consider them boring, the EliteShort Stories allow the show to slow down and focus on individual relationships in a way it never could in the main series. Nadia Guzmán is the second short story and follows the titular characters. Omar (Ayuso) only appears as a supporting character in this special, which is about the long-distance relationship between Nadia (Mina El Hammani) and Guzmán (Miguel Herrán). Omar sympathizes with Nadia, considering his relationship with Ander (Piper) who is abroad with Guzmán.
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After the first run of Elite Short Stories was received as a success, a second set came out in December 2021 for three holiday-themed specials. The second special, Samuel Omar, finds Samuel (Itzan Escamilla) struggling to pay his rent after his mother accrues too many late penalties. Omar suggests Samuel post risqué photos to an OnlyFans-like site, which turns out to be a cash cow. However, someone at Las Encinas shows the photos of Samuel to the principal, who threatens to expel him.
In heartwarming holiday fashion, the senior class of Las Encinas comes together to post inappropriate photos, forcing the principal to choose between dismissing the entire class or letting everyone off with a warning. It’s a slightly ridiculous plot, but it’s Omar’s biggest story of all the Elite Short Stories. Omar has always been one of the most likable characters on Elite, and this special gives Ayuso a chance to show how charming, clever, and ultimately caring he can make a character feel.
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Omar Ander Alexis is the third special of the first set of Elite Short Stories, and as they all do, follows the titular characters. In this special, Ander, who was diagnosed with cancer in season 3, and Omar spend time visiting their friend Alexis (Jorge Clemente) as he is still undergoing chemotherapy. Alexis was diagnosed before Ander and helped the young man adjust to the treatments, showing him the ropes of going through the chemo cycles.
Omar and Ander try to cheer their friend up but by the end of the special, Alexis chooses to end their friendship, unwilling to see the hurt on his friends’ faces as he approaches his deathbed. It’s a moving and sad special and gives the normally optimistic and opinionated Omar pause. Ayuso’s portrayal is strikingly internal, as Omar struggles to understand the ramifications of what will happen to Alexis and that there’s nothing he can do about it.
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On the Go the first leading role of Ayuso’s career and his largest feature film performance to date. The spirited, freewheeling road trip movie is the feature debut of dual-team directors Maria Gisèle Royo and Julia de Castro. On the Go follows Jonathan (Ayuso), a despondent man who frequently uses Grindr for one-night stands as a way to deal with his abandonment issues, and Milagros (Julia de Castro), an unemployed and relationshipless woman who wants Jonathan to be her sperm donor, so she can have a child.