Name	Ariel Lopez Padilla
Height
Naionality	Guadalajara
Date of Birth	12-Aug-1962
Place of Birth	Jalisco, Mexico
Famous for

Ariel López Padilla was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, México on August 12, 1962. Being the second of three brothers, Francisco and Horacio the other two, this "sandwich brother" has always been of restless nature and avid for attention, there the root of its multiple facets like actor, plastic artist, dancer, sportsman, writer, painter, teacher and who knows what else might come into his head.

Early young he showed an outstanding ability for acting: countless are the family anecdotes where Ariel displayed his gift taking you from laughter with diverse jokes, imitations, funny remarks, as well as trying to manipulate you with a tear or two. Dunia Zaldívar, his aunt and who already counted with some years as an actress, shared with him acting techniques, selected literature, examples and other guides that introduced him formally and with a lot of affection to this art.

As expected, he studied the career of performance arts at the Universidad de Guadalajara and participated in several productions where he quickly distinguished, especially in comic papers. Actually, his great sense of humor has always been very remarkable in his personal treatment with family members and friends. Motivated to have a better figure in his adolescence (in that time he was fat) he became fan of basketball, sport that he still practices.

However, his true passion has always been the classic ballet. He studied in the best academies of Guadalajara and later was hired as a dancer by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (I.N.B.A.) in Mexico City. His dedication and perseverance through several years led him to take courses and workshops about dance, participating in countries like Mexico (practically the whole Mexican republic), Cuba, France, Germany, United States and the extinct Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, where he had the privilege of being the first Mexican dancer that competed at Bolshoi Theater representing Mexico in the 6th International Competition of Ballet in the capital, Moscow (1989).

As all careers based on the physical force, Ariel knew that he had to return to its innate vocation: acting. He gave up at I.N.B.A. as a dancer to participate in the production of Cats Mexico, The Musical (Nefastulo role). He enrolled to Televisa’s Centro de Educación Artística (CEA and also called the Star System) just to claim what he has always been born. Ariel was discovered by Mr. Eugenio Cobo, principal of Televisa's Centro de Educación Artística (CEA) allowing him to have his first sporadic but constant appearances in multiple TV shows and eventually to take his first main papers in soap operas like “La Pícara Soñadora” (Dir. Raquel Parot, Prod. Valentin Pimstein) y “De Frente Al Sol” (Dir. Miguel Corcega, Prod. Carla Estrada).

His jump to the fame definitively made it with the soap opera Corazón Salvaje, the third adaptation to the TV screen of the novel written by Caridad Bravo Adams, directed by Alberto Cortez and produced by José Rendón. This adaptation had the luck of capturing the pleasure and popularity of the TV viewers who had the fortune of seeing the acting of Edith González, the deceased Eduardo Palomo and Ana Colchero in a production where Alberto Cortez made gala of an unprecedented visual language using all his experience as a cinema director. After this super production other followed where he distinguishes in leading roles as well as antagonist ones, allowing him a broader variety of acting nuances for the projection of his work.

At present time he lives in the city of Miami, Florida, United States where he's been invited to collaborate in productions with international projection for the audience of Latin America. His integration with the community, participating in sectors like education and culture, led him to be recognized as Distinguished Mexican in 2007 by the United States - Mexico Chamber of Commerce, Inter-American Chapter.

He is married to a show business executive and both have been sharing their lives in love and harmony. He was married to Mariana Levy who died from a heart attack after a failed robbery attempt in Mexico City. With Mariana he had the opportunity to become father of a beautiful girl: María (born on March 28, 1996).