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America Ferrera

America Ferrera received critical acclaim and widespread recognition with her starring role in the Patricia Cardoso film Real Women Have Curves. Her performance earned a Sundance Jury Award for Best Actress, an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance and a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Performance for a Leading Young Actress.

She went on to star in the 2005 hit film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, for which she was nominated for an ALMA Award. She also appeared in Catherine Hardwicke's Lords of Dogtown and the 2005 Sundance Film Festival entry How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer, written and directed by Georgina Riedel and costarring Elizabeth Peña. In recognition of her work, she received a 2005 Movieline Breakthrough Award.

Currently, Ferrera stars as the title character in ABC's hit series Ugly Betty, based on the enormously successful Colombian series Yo Soy Betty, La Fea and executive produced by Salma Hayek. Her portrayal of Betty has earned Ferrera numerous honors, including an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and an additional Golden Globe nomination, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an ALMA Award. She is a current Emmy nominee for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Among Ferrera's credits are a starring role in the feature drama Steel City, which premiered in dramatic competition at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. On stage, she starred off-Broadway in Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, directed by Trip Cullman.

In 2007, she starred in a Spanish-speaking role as a woman who has a complicated relationship with a young kidnapping victim in the bilingual independent film Towards Darkness, which she also executive produced. Directed by Antonio Negret, the film is based on his short film Darkness Minus 12, in which Ferrera also starred. Later that year she starred in the independent film La Misma Luna (Under the Same Moon), which screened at the Austin Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and the Internacional de Cine Expresion en Corto Festival in Mexico, and went on to gross more than $20 million worldwide box office. Directed by Patricia Riggen, it chronicles a 9 year-old Mexican boy's journey to the United States to find his migrant mother after the grandmother who is taking care of him passes away. The film also stars Mexican actors Kate DelCastillo and Eugenio Derbez.

Among Ferrera's upcoming projects are the animated features How to Train Your Dragon, for which she lends her vocal talent along with Gerard Butler, and Tinker Bell, due on October 28th, in which she joins a voice cast which includes Lucy Liu, Kristin Chenoweth and Jesse McCartney.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2008.
Read earlier biographies on this page.

America Ferrera Facts

Birth NameAmerica Georgina Ferrera
OccupationActress
BirthdayApril 18, 1984 (39)
SignAries
BirthplaceLos Angeles, California, USA
Awards2007 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy (for Ugly Betty)
2007 Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Female Actor in a Comedy Series (for Ugly Betty)
2007 Emmy Awards: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (for Ugly Betty)

Selected Filmography

How to Train Your Dragon 2
End of Watch
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Years of Living Dangerously
DreamWorks How to Train Your Dragon Legends
Under the Same Moon
How to Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon 2 Sneak Peek
It's a Disaster
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