Martha Higareda was born in Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico, to actress Martha Cervantes and therapist and artist Jose Luis Higareda, and is the sister of actress Miriam Higareda. She began acting on stage at a young age, along with dancing jazz, flamenco, tap, and folklore. At 14, she moved to Mexico City to pursue an acting career, making her debut in theater participating in various plays such as "Little Women" and "Don Juan".
As an advanced student, she entered college at the age of 15, studying Communications at El Tecnologico de Monterrey. She would attend college in the mornings while going to acting school in the evenings and performing in theater on the weekends. A year later, her mother and sister moved to Mexico City and attended acting school with her.
She had her first TV debut as an anchor hostess in The Disney Channel's "Zapping Zone", a 2-hour life show of fun sketches and adventurous exploring. Soon after, Martha had her own extreme sports segments in the show.
At 16, filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron came to Mexico City auditioning for "Y tu Mama tambien", Martha got the part of Cecilia Huerta, Gael Garcia's girlfriend in the film, but being underage and due to the full-on nudity in the movie, she was not able to do the role. Cuaron encouraged her to keep pursuing her acting career, and soon after, she changed her major from Communications to the Performing Arts.
In 2002, Higareda had her first leading role in the movie "Amar te duele" (Love Hurts),directed by Fernando Sariñana, in which she shares credits with Luis Fernando Peña and Alfonso Herrera. The movie quickly became a box office hit, and launched Martha's career, giving her the nickname "The Mexican Sweetheart". She received The Silver Goddess award for her performance as female lead and the MTV movies favorite actress award.
In 2003, she was offered the lead in a Mexican TV show "Enamorate" in TV Azteca, but Higareda's passion was in making movies. Higareda returned with the movie "Siete Días" next to Jaime Camil, which turned out to be another box office hit. She worked with Carlos Carrera in "Sex, love and other perversions" winning another Silver Goddess Award.
In 2007, she came with her latest production "Niñas Mal", directed by Fernando Sariñana, where she shared credits with Camila Sodi and Ximena Sariñana. The movie produced by Columbia Pictures was a huge success, and Higareda portrayed a stubborn yet sweet punk, Adela, and her unusual haircut and fashion statement quickly became a trend in Mexican teenagers.
She booked her first American movie in 2007 "Borderland", where she shared credits with Sean Austin and Beto Cuevas, produced by Lionsgate. The movie was screening in the American Film Market when an agent approached her. He introduced Martha to Craig Shapiro, who to this day represents Higareda at ICM Partners. Shapiro convinced Martha to move to LA.
In 2008, she moved to Hollywood to audition and study script writing: "I'm not the type of actress who sits there to wait for the phone call, I love the creating process, and I need to keep myself busy, so I studied script writing, first to know how to choose my projects, but most importantly because writing had always been a big passion in my life."
