Why The Professor From Money Heist Looks So Familiar

Morte's small-screen resume has spanned everything from procedural dramas to Spanish telenovelas. But he began the TV arm of his career in the early 2000s, with a small two-episode part on Hospital Central, the Spanish television equivalent of the American medical drama ER. That very same year, he appeared for another multi-episode stint on the sixth season of Spanish police procedural Policías, en el corazón de la calle.

It would be another five years before Morte snagged his first major role in a television project. He was cast on the crime drama Planta 25 as Ray, a bodyguard and driver to the corrupt Don Pablo, the patriarch of the Valdemares family. The series followed the dealings and power struggles of the family, executives in a massive construction business. Its run was short, and Morte went back to smaller recurring roles on TV and mini-series before landing a couple of high profile leading roles.

First, in 2014, he took on the role of Gabriel Areta on the soap opera Love in Difficult Times, set during and after the Spanish Civil War in the days of Francisco Franco's dictatorship. Morte's character was eventually imprisoned for murder — but that merely freed up his schedule to star on the second longest-running Spanish TV series, El secreto de Puente Viejo. For three years, Morte played Lucas Moliner, a doctor who, at one point, fell in love with a married woman; his departure from El Secreto would lead directly into his role as the Professor on Money Heist.

Since then, Morte has also appeared on two seasons of the Spanish mystery drama The Pier, playing the deceased husband of a woman who discovered that he was leading a double life with another woman.