Carla Ortiz

Ortiz was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia. After a brief career as a professional tennis player, she moved to Mexico City in the 1990s and later relocated to the United States, moving to Los Angeles in 2005 upon winning a bursary from Georgetown University.^[1]

Ortiz began modeling at age 13.^[2] She made her film debut in 1998 at age 19 in director Hervé Palud’s Mookie, a French comedy set in Mexico. That same year, she acted in her first supporting role on Mexican television in the telenovela Gotita de amor (Droplet of Love). She continued to earn television roles, including four other telenovelas from 1999-2001 including Mujeres engañadas and Secreto de amor.

Her film career has included starring roles in the 2017 thriller Curse of the Mayans (Spanish title: Xibalba, the name of the Mayan underworld); the 2012 American Western The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez, alongside Ernest Borgnine in his final role; and in Olvidados (Forgotten), a 2013 historical drama about Operation Condor which she also co-wrote and produced. Forgotten was submitted as Bolivia's official entry in the 87th Academy Awards^[3] for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not nominated.

In 2022, she returned to television in Season 3 of the Telemundo/Netflix series La Reina del Sur, where she was featured in a recurring role as Karen Chacón.^[4]

Ortiz was accused in 2017 by journalist Christoph Reuter in Der Spiegel of engaging in Russian propaganda in relation to the Syrian Civil War,^[5] for her participation as a foreign celebrity in chaperoned tours of Syria.^[6] However, these accusations have been publicly criticized by Syrian-German musician Hanin Elias.^[7]

• Carla Ortiz at IMDb