Asumpta Serna originally set out to become a lawyer, but after three years of study, she quit school and joined the anti-Fascist theater working toward the demise of the Franco regime. After Franco died in 1975, she migrated from her native Barcelona to Madrid, where she began acting on stage. Filmmaker Carlos Saura gave Serna her first big break when he cast her in "Sweet Hours" (1981). Although numerous Spanish and French films followed, Serna earned international recognition as the femme fatale of Pedro Almodovar's "Matador" (1986; released in the USA in 1988), which also launched Antonio Banderas. It began a career which has taken her to around the world for such films, as Zalman King's "Wild Orchid" (1989), which grossed $100 million worldwide, "Nostradamus" (1993), as the seer's second wife, and "The Shooter" (1995), as a suspected assassin who joins forces with Dolph Lundgren to find the true culprits. In "The Craft" (1996), Serna was the owner of an occult store who instructs four girls in the way of the Wiccan.

Audiences may also know Serna for her TV work, which has included playing the recurring role of the terminally ill Anna Cellini on "Falcon Crest" (CBS, 1989). She could also be seen opposite Sean Bean in the British miniseries "Sharpe" and its sequel, "Sharpe II". Serna first appeared on American TV in 1988 in NBC's "Crime Story", executive produced by Michael Mann and she later played a judge in "Drug Wars: The Cocaine Cartel" (NBC, 1992).

Because of a busy screen career, Serna's stage work has been limited into the 80s and 90s, although she won critical acclaim for "The Angel of Information" at the Comedie Francaise in 1988. She has remained a beloved and admired actress in her native Spain, and was twice voted most popular actress in a nationwide poll similar to the People's Choice Awards.