Pablo Pineda

Pablo Pineda, born August 5, 1974 in Malaga, Spain, is a Spanish teacher, actor and disability-inclusion advocate known as the first student with Down syndrome in Europe to obtain a university degree. He holds a diploma in Teaching and a bachelor's degree in educational psychology, credentials he pursued specifically so he could work in the classroom. Pineda gained wider public attention for his role in the 2009 film Yo, tambien, playing a university graduate with Down syndrome, a role that paralleled his own life and won him the Silver Shell award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. In September 2009 he said he intended to pursue teaching over acting, and he has since worked with organizations such as the Adecco Foundation, giving lectures on education and disability and publishing the 2013 book El Reto de Aprender, The Challenge of Learning, drawing on his own experience as a student and teacher with an intellectual disability.