Ofelia Medina Biography

One of Mexico's most respected and popular actresses of stage and screen, Ofelia Medina made her film debut in 1967 with La Paz (1967). In 1978, Medina went to Hollywood to appear in The Big Fix. She has won Mexico's Ariel Award (the country's Oscar) as well as Dios la Plata awards. In Canada, Medina was nominated for a Best Actress Award by Canada's Film Academy for her work in Diplomatic Immunity (1991). For playing the title role in Paul Leduc's Frida, naturaleza y viva, she received four international awards. From the '80s through the early '90s, Medina appeared in increasingly political films, something that reflects her passionate and public human rights campaigns, particularly those of indigenous people and children, in Mexico. She has played a key role in strengthening her country's national identity and continues to lobby for increased tolerance of Mexico's cultural diversity. In the late '90s, she was part of a movement to change the Mexican constitution so that the country's 56 Indian languages would carry the same import as Spanish. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi