Bio
The short of it
Award winning actress, writer and producer, Yareli Arizmendi is best known for her tour de force performances as “Rosaura” in “Like Water for Chocolate” and “Lila Rodriguez” in “A Day Without a Mexican” which she co-wrote and co-produced.
A twenty plus years acting career includes a great number of starring roles on American episodic television, starting with NYPD Blue to House, Six Feet Under, and Heroes. The latest, Gente-Fied executive produced by America Ferrara, is soon to be released as a full series. Among Yareli’s favorite film projects are: “Don’t Let Me Drown” by Cruz Angeles, “Fast Food Nation” by Rick Linklater, and “América” by Sonia Fritz.
Yareli has lent her voice to many public awareness campaigns and audio books including: The Alchemist, Like Water for Chocolate, Savage Detectives, The Law of Love, MALINCHE, and Laura Esquivel’s recent novel, Mi Negro Pasado.
Beyond acting, Yareli is a dedicated creative activist. Her TEDx Talk - Making the Invisible Visible -- can be seen on the TED You Tube Channel.
Her experience as a documentary director and writer has afforded her in-depth interviews with Dr. Noam Chomsky, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine) Junot Diaz (Pulitzer Prize winner - The Brief Life of Oscar Wao), Lila Downs, Rigoberta Menchú (Nobel Peace Award), Amy Goodman (host of Democracy Now), and John Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man).
At present, Yareli is working on her novel entitled The Story of Y: A Curious Memoir and collaborating on the script Another Day Without a Mexican: This Time It’s Personal.
Yareli received her BA in Political Science and her MFA in Theatre from the University of California, San Diego.
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things you probably don't know about me
I was hired as an extra in the film A Time of Destiny (1988) directed by Gregory Nava. After two days of sitting at the San Diego train station dressed up as the “Spanish Lady” doing nothing I promised I would never work on films again.
I was Homecoming Queen Candidate and President of my school... in Kansas!
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I was hired as an extra in the film A Time of Destiny (1988) directed by Gregory Nava. After two days of sitting at the San Diego train station dressed up as the “Spanish Lady” doing nothing I promised I would never work on films again.