Rose Portillo

Rose Portillo is an accomplished American actress/writer/director/educator and visual artist whose stage and film career began with a lead role in Luis Valdez's 'Zoot Suit' (original L.A. and Broadway productions and the film). She played the role of Mother in the critically acclaimed 2017 revival, starring Demián Bichir. She was Associate Director of About Productions, now celebrating 24 years of creating original Theaterworks and founded the company's Young Theaterworks, which serves students in Continuation/Options High Schools primarily in East Los Angeles. Since appearing in Theresa Chavez's solo play, L.A. Real, she has directly partnered with Chavez (the company's Artistic Director) on at least 10 critically acclaimed productions. As an actress, Portillo has extensive credits in regional theater, film and television. Some personal highlights include starring in the award winning film, ...and the Earth Did Not Swallow Him (1994) (by Severo Perez and based on Tomas Rivera's groundbreaking novel); recurring or regular roles on such television series as Vida (2018) and Eisenhower & Lutz (1988); playing Sonia in the Antaeus Company's production of Anton Chekhov's 'The Wood Demon' at the Mark Taper Forum; 'Death and the Maiden' at San Diego Rep; and 'Other People's Money' at The Mixed Blood. She has directed in Los Angeles and at the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis, and recently, directed an adaptation of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' for the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. Portillo earned writing commissions from Center Theatre Group's P.L.A.Y., Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, and California Institute of the Arts' Community Arts Program, and has been Writer-in-Residence at the William Inge Center for the Arts. A respected educator, Portillo is Faculty member at Pomona College in Claremont, where she directs "Theater for (and with) Young Audiences". Theresa Chavez and Rose Portillo were honored by Playwrights' Arena with the Lee Melville Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Los Angeles theatre community.