Carlos Acosta was born in Havana. The son of a truck-driver he was one of 11 children and grew up in a cramped Havana apartment. He played truant from school and dreamed of being a professional footballer. His father however had other ideas and the fear of his wayward son becoming a delinquent prompted his father to send him off to ballet school aged 9. He has not looked back since. He trained at the National Ballet School of Cuba and won the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne (1990).

He was a Principal with ENB, 1991-2, danced with National Ballet of Cuba, 1992-3 under Alicia Alonso, and was a Principal with Houston Ballet, 1993-8 under Ben Stevenson. He joined The Royal Ballet in 1998 and became a Principal Guest Artist in 2003. He has written and choreographed his own semi-autobiographical show, Tocororo, which broke all box offices records at Sadlers Wells in London where he has also brought his own classical show with guest artists from the Royal Ballet, to great