Elpidia Carrillo
| Elpidia Carrillo | |
|---|---|
Carrillo in 2010
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| Born |
August 16, 1961 Parácuaro, Michoacán, Mexico |
| Years active | 1977–2010, 2013–present |
Elpidia Carrillo (born August 16, 1961) is a Mexican and American actress and director. Her career includes roles in both Latin American and US film and television. She is best known in the United States for her supporting role in the iconic action film Predator, Bread and Roses and Nine Lives.
She was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Salvador. She also known for the role Tecuichpo in the Independent film The Other Conquest.
Carrillo was born in Santa Elena, Michoacán, Mexico, a rural mountain town. One of eight children in a family of farm laborers, her childhood was marked by violence and poverty. At the age of three, her father was murdered, forcing her eldest brother to assume control of the family. Wanting Carrillo to get an education, he forged a birth certificate so she could begin first grade at age four.
When she was six, her brother was also gunned down outside a theater and the family faced constant threats to their lives. When she was ten, Carrillo moved to the town of Uruapan with an older sister where she dropped out of school as she began working alongside her sister at a Chinese restaurant.
Carrillo was discovered by a local photographer in Uruapan, Mexico and soon received a modeling contract. At 12 years old, director Rafael Corkidi cast Elpidia as Malinche in the surrealist Mexican feature film Pafnucio Santo. The film was Mexico's official submission to the Academy Awards that year, but with its many esoteric elements, it failed to garner a nomination. Due to the role involving nudity and her being under age, Carrillo was credited under the fake name Piya. Corkidi cast Carrillo again for a larger role in his film Deseos.
By age 16, she shot her first lead role in the controversial Mexican feature Nuevo Mundo, directed by [Gabriel Retes]. Having worked numerous films, she decided to enroll in the Bellas Arts School in Mexico City.
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