Angel Aquino on screen and stage

Filipino actress Angel Aquino has appeared in film, television, and stage productions. She made her screen debut with a minor role in the action drama Mumbaki (1996), and appeared in supporting roles in the dramas Goodbye America (1997), Bata, Bata... Pa'no Ka Ginawa? (1998), and Serafin Geronimo (1998). Her first television appearance was as a presenter of the lifestyle show F! (1999). In 2000, Aquino had her breakthrough in the erotic drama Laro sa Baga, for which she received a Star Award for Best Supporting Actress. She made her stage debut in 2002 with the Folk Arts Theater production of Eve Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues, portraying a Bosnian woman subjected to rape.

Aquino's profile continued to grow in the 2000s as she took on starring roles in two critically acclaimed films. She featured as a professional mourner in Mark Meily's comedy drama Crying Ladies (2003), and played a cancer-stricken woman in Adolfo Alix's drama Donsol (2006). Both films were submissions by the Philippines for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 77th and 80th Academy Awards, respectively. During this period, she presented the lifestyle magazine show Us Girls (2006), and had minor roles in the fantasy series Etheria (2005), Captain Barbell (2006), and Darna (2009). Aquino received acclaim and an Asian Television Award nomination for her portrayal of a villainous fashion designer in the revenge drama series Magkaribal (2010). In 2012, she took on the lead role in the horror film Amorosa, and starred with Isabelle Huppert in the psychological thriller Captive.

In 2013, she earned two Gawad Urian Award nominations for her roles as a transgender woman in the drama film Porno and a woman desired by a teenage girl in the coming-of-age drama Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita, winning Best Supporting Actress for the latter. That year, she portrayed an assassin's wife in the neo-noir crime thriller On the Job, which was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Also in 2013, she returned to the stage in the local production of Patrick Marber's play Closer. For her performance as the main villain in the suspense drama series Apoy sa Dagat (2013), Aquino won the Golden Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress. Two years later, she played a vindictive antagonist in the family drama series And I Love You So (2015). She appeared in Lav Diaz's historical fantasy drama A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, which won the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival. In 2017, Aquino portrayed the military intelligence officer Brig. Gen. Diana Olegario in the action drama series Ang Probinsyano. She starred as a gambling-addicted woman who becomes entangled in a murder plot with her family in the revenge drama series Dirty Linen (2023).