At 12, Eiza González lost her father in a motorcycle accident. At 16, she was cast as the star of a hit Mexican TV show. Soon after, TV hosts were mocking her body. She was still grieving, and the whole country was watching.
Eiza González was born on January 30, 1990, in Mexico City. Her mother, Glenda Reyna, was a model. Her father, Carlos, was her whole world.
When she is 12, he is killed in a motorcycle accident.
Something in her shuts down. She falls into a deep depression. She later says she coped by eating compulsively, trying to soothe a pain she could not yet name.
Around that same age, she makes a decision. She sits her mother down and tells her she is going to be an actress.
At 16, she is cast as the lead in a Mexican musical telenovela, Lola, érase una vez. It debuts on February 26, 2007, and runs for 224 episodes. She becomes one of the most famous teenagers in the country.
Here’s what makes it worse. Instead of focusing on her work, the press picks apart her body. A grieving teenager with a normal teenage body is mocked on television, again and again. She later says nobody called the press out for it, because back then body shaming was simply ignored.
The comments stick. They shape how she sees herself for years. In 2015, she reveals it took her 5 years to climb out of depression and accept her father’s death.
But she keeps working. In spring 2008, her mother takes her to New York City for a three-month acting course at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. In 2009, she releases her first album.
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In late August 2013, she moves to Los Angeles, where almost no one knows her name. With no agent and no manager, her mother still gets her an audition for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. She doesn’t get the part, but the audition opens doors.
She lands From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, playing a role Salma Hayek once made famous. The show’s creator, Robert Rodriguez, later recommends her to director Edgar Wright.
That leads to Baby Driver. On June 28, 2017, it hits U.S. theaters, and she plays Darling, the only woman in a crew of bank robbers. The film earns 3 Oscar nominations.
Hollywood finally knows her name. Hobbs & Shaw. Godzilla vs. Kong. Ambulance. 3 Body Problem.
She never forgets the girl she was. She still honors her father in public. On his birthday in 2020, she writes, “I miss you every day of my life.”
On February 25, 2026, during Eating Disorder Awareness Week, she shares something she kept private most of her life. In a long Instagram post, she says her complicated relationship with her body began after her father died. She tells fans she spent years judging her worth by her weight.
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In 2026, at 36, she stars in Guy Ritchie’s In the Grey, her third film with the director.
Her story is a reminder that the people who look the strongest are sometimes carrying the heaviest grief. Kindness costs nothing. Cruelty can last a lifetime.
