Biography

After a ten-year hiatus to get the Equal Rights Amendment ratified to the U.S. Constitution legendary artist, Kamala Lopez, is back in the business with new episodes of "This is Us," "Hacks" and "Mayans MC" filmed this past season. Over her long career, the award-winning bilingual actress has starred in over thirty-five feature films and seventy+ TV shows, across all genres (comedy/drama; film/TV).

Born in New York City to a mother from Madras, India and a Venezuelan father, Lopez lived with her parents in Caracas until the age of fourteen, studying in British and American schools. While still in high school, and studying acting at Herbert Berghof Studio in Manhattan, Ms. Lopez was cast in CTW's "Sesame Street" as Mercedes, Maria's cousin, a role she portrayed for two seasons before she was accepted to Yale University where she majored in Theatre Studies and Philosophy.

After graduation, Ms. Lopez continued training with some of the world's most progressive and renowned acting teachers including: the late Sanford Meisner, (Masterclass/Director's Lab); Sylvain L'Hermitte (resident director/La Mama); Milton Katselas, (Saturday Professional Class); Jerzi Grotowski, (Objective Drama Workshop), Juan Carlos Corazza (Professional Intensive/Madrid), Gunnar Rohrbacher (Actors Comedy Studio) and Ivana Chubbuck (Coaching).

On screen, Ms. Lopez can be seen in many diverse, major motion pictures, notably: "I Heart Huckabees," directed by David O. Russell, opposite Dustin Hoffman and Mark Wahlberg as the latter's wife, Molly; starring opposite Raul Julia in "The Burning Season," directed by John Frankenheimer for HBO Pictures/ Warner Bros. (winner of several Emmy and Golden Globe Awards); as crack addicted Belinda opposite Laurence Fishburne in New Line's "Deep Cover" directed by Bill Duke (New Line); opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. as Pilar, the southern dance hall girl who wins his heart in "Lightning Jack "(Savoy); as Anna, the sexually lethal government agent in "Love and Action in Chicago" opposite Courtney Vance and Regina King; headlining Lizzie Borden's racy, irreverent "Let's Talk About Sex" episode of the international co-production "Erotique"; and her introductory feature lead as Cheech Marin's sweetheart Dolores in "Born in East L.A."

Some of the highlights of Ms. Lopez's extensive television career include: groundbreaking television like "It's Garry Shandling's Show," "Hill Street Blues" and the Amnesty International sponsored episode of "21 Jump St." (for which she won the Imagen Award); opposite Christine Lahti and Ruben Blades in "Crazy From The Heart" (winner of the Ace Award); opposite Glenn Close in Stones For Ibarra; hosting "Wired Science" with Chris Hardwicke for PBS. Recurring roles include on the hit NBC show "Medium" as attorney Kristine Romney; on Showtime's critically acclaimed series, "Resurrection Blvd." as artist Sulinda Serrano; as Lisa Vidal's sister, Connie, "The Division" as army nurse Susanna Lozada on "Tour of Duty" and as prostitute/informant Carlita the CBS series "The Handler." More than sixty episodic guest leads include "Black Jesus," "24," "Alias," "JAG," "Miami Vice" and "NYPD Blue" among many others.

Her directorial feature film debut "A Single Woman" about the life of first US Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin won the 2009 Exceptional Merit in Media Award from the National Women's Political Caucus. In 2013 her short Spanish-language film "Ese Beso" won the Jury Award at the Senorita Cinema Festival and the Audience Award at the Boyle Heights Latina Film Festival. In 2016, her follow-up feature, the documentary Equal Means Equal, won Best U.S. Documentary (Audience Award) at Michael Moore's TCF Festival and was a New York Times Critics' Pick. The film was the catalyst behind a national civil rights movement resulting in the ratification of the 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: The Equal Rights Amendment.

Kamala has been the Keynote or Featured Speaker in venues as disparate as the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, the United Nations, The National Arts Club, at the YaleWomen Global Conference and Stanford Law School. Kamala has appeared as herself on multiple television, radio and cable networks including NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, BBC, CNN, PBS, Telemundo, Univision, NPR, KPFK, WBAI, KIIS and many more.

- IMDb mini biography by: Sabrina Nolan