Itzan Escamilla Guerrero (born 31 October 1997) is a Spanish actor. He is best known for his lead role of Samuel García Domínguez in the Netflix thriller teen drama series Élite.
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Early life
Escamilla was born on 31 October 1997, in Madrid, Spain, and was raised in Hortaleza. He is the son of television producer Jacobo Escamilla and model Silvia Guerrero, and the grandson of cinematographer Teo Escamilla. Growing up, he initially considered careers in architecture and later neurology, but discovered an interest in acting after taking part in a short film for an audiovisual class project at school. He later studied acting at the Cristina Rota School of Dramatic Arts in Madrid.
Career
Escamilla began his acting career in 2016 with minor appearances in the Spanish television series Seis Hermanas and Centro Médico. He also appeared in the second season of the crime mystery series Víctor Ros as Juan, the protagonist's godson, which marked his first long-running television role.
In 2017, Escamilla made minor appearances in the adventure series El final del camino as Gonzalo, the fantasy series The Ministry of Time as a young Simón Bolívar, and the Netflix period drama series Cable Girls as a young Francisco Gómez. That year, he also appeared in Los universos paralelos, a Spanish adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire's stage play Rabbit Hole, directed by David Serrano.
In 2018, Escamilla became internationally known for his portrayal of Samuel García Domínguez on the Netflix teen drama series Élite, in which he appeared for its first five seasons. In 2020, he made his feature film debut in Carlos Val's Planeta 5000, starring alongside Kimberley Tell. He also voiced Jack Redfield in the Netflix animated series The Idhun Chronicles, an adaptation of Laura Gallego's book series of the same name.
In 2021, Escamilla starred in Jaime Olías' crime drama short film Chaval, for which he received the 2021 Cortogenia Award for Best Male Performance. In 2022, he was cast in the Mexican Apple TV medical drama series Midnight Family, based on the 2019 documentary film of the same name. The series premiered on 25 September 2024, and its cast received a 2025 Aura Award nomination for Best Ensemble. Also in 2024, he appeared in Jurek Jablonicky's short film Perséfone and Susan Béjar's comedy film Un lío de millones, a Spanish remake of Alexandra Leclère's 2021 French film Mes très chers enfants.
In 2025, Escamilla appeared in Ana Rujas' play La otra bestia, and in a Spanish-language adaptation of Lucy Prebble's play The Effect, directed by Juan Carlos Fisher. He appeared in the Disney+ comedy series Entrepreneurs, and portrayed Javier in Fernando Franco's psychological thriller film Subsuelo, which premiered at the 70th Valladolid International Film Festival in October 2025.
Escamilla will appear in En busca de Cortés, a documentary about the life of his grandfather Teo Escamilla, and will star alongside Greta Fernández in Miguel Morillo's short film Trip to Nowhere.
Personal life
Escamilla resides in Madrid, Spain.
In 2020, Escamilla and Gonzalo Vila co-founded Kopskam, an initiative promoting responsible internet and social media use among young people. Its first campaign, "Not a Social Guy", aimed to raise awareness of bullying and cyberbullying, with proceeds from the campaign's T-shirt sales donated to the Asociacíon Española para la Prevención del Acoso Escolar (AEPAE), a Spanish non-profit organisation dedicated to preventing school bullying.