Carmen Peláez is a talented writer and artist who has made a significant impact in the entertainment industry. Most recently, she was commissioned by the Huntington Theater to adapt Antigone and was awarded a 2023 Macdowell Fellowship and a 2023 Oolite Ellie award for her short film Colada.
Peláez is also developing a streaming series, Tropical Beasts, as well as her first feature film, The Cuban Vote. Her journey in writing began after graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she became frustrated by the limited roles available for Latinx actors. This led her to write a solo play, Rum & Coke, which she performed to critical acclaim in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami. The play later had an award-winning off-Broadway run in 2008.
Peláez has continued to make a name for herself in the industry, winning the HBO NYLFF Short Film Competition in 2012 for The Acting Lesson, which she co-directed. She has also directed and written several other short films, including A Queen Without His Crown and Mango Season, which received an honorable mention at the 2020 Miami International Film Festival.
In 2020, Peláez was commissioned by Oolite to create the short documentary Caridad y Gallo as part of their Close Quarters Series. She has also found a theatrical home at Miami New Drama at the Colony theater, where her play Fake premiered in 2019. She was also commissioned to write Pride for their Seven Deadly Sins play, which won the 2020 Drama League Award. Her play The Cuban Vote premiered in April 2022 and extended twice, and she will be part of the Museum Plays in 2024.
In addition to her narrative work, Peláez has consulted on several projects, including Netflix's One Day at a Time, the Story House Juguetes Perdidos project, and Apple TV's Little America. She has also written essays for Marie Claire, Huffington Post, and the New York Times.
Peláez has also been involved in politics, having worked on President Barack Obama's Cuba policy team and currently serving on President Biden's Cuba advisory team. She is excited to continue writing about her experiences in Miami and beyond, which she finds to be both confounding and entertaining.
