Manu Ríos

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.

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. 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. In the following year, he participated as a dancer in ¡Tu sí que vales!, a Spanish talent show. At that age, he also began uploading covers of famous songs on YouTube, earning him the nickname "the Spanish Justin Bieber". 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. 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. In addition, he portrayed Gavroche in the musical Les Misérables at the Lope de Vega Theatre in Madrid.

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. 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. Ríos characterized the songs he had written as alternative pop with dark elements. He can play the guitar and piano and has cited Lorde and Frank Ocean as some of his musical influences.

Ríos began his acting career in 2014 as Mauricio Martínez in the Spanish TV series Chiringuito de Pepe 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. In February 2023, he received a nomination for Best TV Actor at the 2022 Fotogramas de Plata for his performance in Elite.

Just days after attending the 2022 MET Gala in New York, Ríos began filming the Netflix psychological thriller series El Silencio (Muted). He was also cast in the lead role in La edad de la ira, an adaptation of the bestselling eponymous novel by Nando Lopez. He portrays Marcos, an introverted teenager growing up in a toxic family environment, who is accused of murdering his father. 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.

In October 2023, Ríos and stylist Marc Forné founded the genderless fashion brand CARRER, with Ríos serving as its creative director.