Kamala Lopez

Biography

Kamala Lopez is an award-winning film and television actress, producer, director, writer and editor as well as an internationally recognized political activist, blogger and published editorialist. Born in New York City to a South Indian mother and a Venezuelan father, Lopez lived with her parents in Caracas until age 14, when the family returned to the US. While still in high school in Brooklyn, she was cast on Sesame Street (1969) as Mercedes, Maria's cousin, a role she played for two seasons before being accepted to Yale University, where she double majored in Philosophy and Theatre Studies. She trained at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York, with Jerzy Grotovski (Objective Drama Workship, Yale/UC Irvine), Juan Carlos Corraza (Madrid, Spain) and Sanford Meisner, both in his masterclass (three years) and his director's lab (one year; Bequia, St. Vincent; Los Angeles). Lopez has worked as an actor in feature films including Born in East L.A. (1987), Deep Cover (1992), The Burning Season: The Chico Mendes Story (1994) (winner of two Emmys, three Golden Globes and the Humanitas Prize), Clear and Present Danger (1994), Lightning Jack (1994) and I Heart Huckabees (2004). She has guest-starred in television shows including Medium (2005), 24 (2001), Alias (2001), NYPD Blue (1993), Hill Street Blues (1981), Miami Vice (1984), 21 Jump Street (1987) (winner of the Imagen Award). She hosted the PBS series Wired Science (2007), a production of KCET Los Angeles in association with Wired Magazine. In 1995 Lopez formed the production company Heroica Films with the mission to write, direct and produce media for women, about women and utilizing women both in front and behind the camera. Since then Lopez and Heroica Films have produced, directed and written many short films…