Luis Fernando Allende Arenas, known as Fernando Allende, was born in Mexico City in 1952. He is best known as a film and television actor and as a mariachi singer, but for roughly two decades he has also worked as a painter, a practice that sits alongside his acting and audiovisual production career.
Allende made his film debut at 19 in Para servir a usted (1971) and then starred in María (1972). After beginning law studies at the La Salle University, he continued working in film and television and, in 1979, moved to Hollywood, where he worked on American series and films. In 2001 he settled in Puerto Rico, where he devoted himself to painting and to producing work through his company El Dorado.
His painting is abstract in style, which he calls dynamic. He has produced more than 120 works, around 80 of which are held in public and private collections in several countries, and his work was recognised at the Florence Biennale, where he was described as a pioneer of a pictorial expression defining the early twenty-first century. His artistic output is an important part of his career, although his wider public profile remains tied to television and music.