As the daughter of a Cuban revolutionary and runner up Miss Cuba, these two formidable personalities inspired in me the idea that real life is stranger than anything we can imagine.
My journey has led me to eclectic experiences that range from performing on Broadway to coaching professional wrestlers in the WWE to becoming a #1 new release author on Amazon for my book Mythic Imagination and the Actor to winning awards as a filmmaker.
In 2022 I became a Sundance Screenwriting Fellow for my screenplay 1972 which was an Athena Awards finalist and I received an inaugural Sundance/Gold House Artist Accelerator grant. In 2024 my proof of concept short, 72, premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, won an Excellence in Drama award at the Hispanic International Film Festival and screened at the Diversity at Cannes Festival.
I began my acting career at the ripe old age of six months when I played “Little Dicky” in an Ivory Snow print ad. Later on, I worked in the following productions and with such luminaries as; Edward Albee, the American premiere of The Keening by Umberto Dorado at the ART in Boston; the world premiere of Two Sisters and a Piano by Nilo Cruz with Bobbie Cannavale at the McCarter; the premiere of Eric Overmeyer’s Dark Rapture with Frances McDormand and David Strathern at New York Stage and Film; The Mark Taper Forum productions of The House of Bernarda Alba with Chita Rivera and Sandra Oh, and Eduardo Machado’s The Floating Island Plays. On Broadway, I performed in Abe Lincoln in Illinois and Brighton Beach Memoirs.
My solo show, Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary, toured the U.S., Europe, and Mexico to critical acclaim. I took my experiences as an actor and moved into filmmaking with several award-winning shorts including; A Cuban Documemory, winner of the best Documentary award at the Cuban American Film Festival which streamed on Hoopla and Finding Shelter, Best Documentary short winner at the 2019 San Diego Latino Film Festival and streamed on DocsNow.
Other shorts include; Zohra which was nominated for best actress and best comedy awards at the Official Latino Film Festival and streamed on BronxNet, and Nostalgia, presented at Fabrica de Arte in Havana. My films have screened at; Miami Film Festival, Anthology Film Archive, The Segal Center in NYC, NFMLA, REDCAT, Pasadena Film Festival, among others.
In 2023 I directed a production of Jose Rivera’s Cloud Tectonics at Inner City Arts with Bobby Soto, Andrea Londo, and Clayton Cardenas. As the first Latina to run a major conservatory Univeristy Acting program from 2003-2010 at CalArts, I developed skills as an administrator and leader.
I then became Director of Duende CalArts, an initiative of the CalArts Center for New Performance, where I conceived and wrote Shelter, which premiered in April 2016 at Lincoln Park, and was presented as a stand-alone event at the Kennedy Center. Some Duende CalArts projects include; Octavio Solis’s Scene with Cranes (world premiere at REDCAT 2022); El Camino Donde Nosotros Lloramos, with artists Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol (performed at CalArts in Spring 2020 and Mexico City as part of UNAM International Theater Festival); Piedra de Sol/Sun Stone, based on the epic poem by Octavio Paz (presentations at CalArts and the Getty Villa).
I co-produced the feature documentary Passage of the SpiralPasaje en Espiral which premiered April 2024 at REDCAT. In 2016 I received a TCG Fox Fellowship in Distinguished Achievement. As I continue to chart new territories and push the boundaries of artistic expression, my compass remains guided by the belief that storytelling is transformative.
My mission is to create spaces of meaning and belonging that celebrates the beautiful confusion of human experiences. Marissa Chibás
