Charlie Alejandro

Charlie Alejandro was born as Shirley Jaudicia Cordero in San Jose Costa Rica. Her birth mother abandoned her at the age of 2 years old and she was taken in by her Godmother's family and raised as their own. Her adoptive mother Maria Otilia Mainieri-Guerrero came to the United States in 1969 and brought then 7 year old Charlie with her. After years of enduring her birth name being mispronounced as "Charlie" by the predominantly Latino community she grew up around, she change the spelling of her name to reflect the way it was being pronounced. Charlie had always been drawn to the acting and the stage. She was cast as Lucy in "Your a good man, Charlie brown" shortly after arriving in the United States. her English skills were so new that the nuns taught her to memorize her lines phonetically. She received huge praise for her role and as a result was invited to audition for the WBGH Local kids show "Zoom". Her mother refused to take her to her audition and she was taken to the studio by her brother in law with her mother knowledge. When she received a call back it ended her dream of acting as her mother refused to take her or sign the consent forms and discouraged from pursing this as a career. She grew up in a very low income, dysfunctional home and as a result left when she was 17 years old after the birth of her first son Derek. Her and her first husband had four sons together Derek, Eric, J. Alexander and Christopher. Charlie earned her GED after birth of her first son, received her medical assisting certificate after the birth of her second son, and became a Metropolitan Police officer (Boston, Massachusetts) after the birth of her third son. While on the Metropolitan Police department, she became the first female in the state of Massachusetts at the time and one of only a handful of women on a tactical Unit (SOU). She would remain an entry team member, trainer, search and rescue, and intel officer on the SOU until the Metropolitan Police was merged with the State Police, Capitol Police and Registry police in 1992 as part of then Governor Wells cost cutting measures. After the merger she was an alternate on the STOP team and assigned to the State Police's Weed and Seed program in Chelsea MA., which was in state receivership at the time and under investigation for police corruption. Charlie was divorced from her first husband in 1994 and got remarried to Mel Alejandro in 1996. Her second husband brought four children of his own into the relationship, two boys two girls, and they were later joined by a foster son to round their brood of nine. She took an early retirement from the state police to raise their blended family. During the interim she worked as a Community organizer for the City of Lowell MA, Criminal Justice instructor, security adviser and motivational speaker. During this time she was cast as a lead in several independent movies, but the funding fell through and these projects were never completed. She did voice-over work and instructional videos both in English and in Spanish. In 2008 after being laid up on extended bed rest due to major foot surgery she started a blog based on the journal writings of the events that her and her family went through. Also later in 2008, while working as Criminal Justice instructor, her son Chris, was attending an audition, when she was told that they were looking for people with police experience for the movie "Edge of Darkness" with Mel Gibson. She got selected to play a recurring police extra and as a precision driver. Various other background roles followed into she was cast in her first small speaking role as the bank manager in "Conned" which went on to win several awards in the various film festivals. It was around this time that she realized that her love of acting was still there and with encouragement from her her husband she decided to pursue her acting career full time. Several other small speaking roles followed including a bit part as a game show contestant in the award winning indie movie "Scooter McGruder". In 2009 Charlie started the internet radio talk show "Diamond in the Rough' on Blog talk radio. It proved to be widely successful and quickly got a loyal following. In May 2011 Charlie was awarded the Mrs Woman Massachusetts Petite America title and in August 2011 she won the national title in her age division in Waterbury, Connecticut. In October 2011 Charlie was cast as Medical examiner Dr. Hutchinson, in a recurring role in the web series "Red Circles". Charlie Alejandro won the Mrs Woman Petite World 2012 title in Waterbury CT, on August 4, 2012. She also went on to win the Ms Classic US of America 2012 pageant in Windsor Forks CT on August 18, 2012. Ms. Alejandro also won the talent, Modeling component and was runner up in photogenic. Ms. Alejandro is Executive director of the Massachusetts State Police Museum and a partner and co-owner of Beantown Statie Production Company, a small independent film production company Based in Lowell MA. and has been working in connection with Angelwood Pictures since 2013. Ms. Alejandro has written numerous scripts, and acted in a wide array of roles. Ms. Alejandro and Seth Chitwood co-wrote and are currently in pre production for Code 13: Unreadable a New Media SAG project. Ms Alejandro has won various awards for acting, writing and her continued involvement in her community.