Paula Garcés (born March 20, 1974) is a Colombian and American actress. She is known for her appearance in films such as ''

Clockstoppers ''Clockstoppers'' is a 2002 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Jonathan Frakes and produced by Gale Anne Hurd and Julia Pistor. The film stars Jesse Bradford, Paula Garcés, French Stewart, Michael Biehn, Robin Thomas, ...

'', '' Man of the House'' and the ''Harold & Kumar'' series, and on TV shows such as '' CSI: Miami'', '' On My Block'', '' The Shield'', '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...

'', '' Oz'', ''

Devious Maids ''Devious Maids'' is an American television comedy-drama and mystery series created by Marc Cherry, produced by ABC Studios, and executive produced by Cherry, Sabrina Wind, Eva Longoria, Paul McGuigan, Larry Shuman, David Lonner, John Mass, P ...

'', ''

Guiding Light ''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. ''Guiding Light'' a ...

'' and ''

All My Children ''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 2013, via Hulu, Hulu Plus, and ...

''.

Early life

Paula Garcés was born on March 20, 1974, in

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

, Colombia. At a very early age she moved to

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

in New York City.

Career

Acting

She played Alvina in 1995's '' Dangerous Minds'' with

Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (; born April 29, 1958) is an American actress and producer. A prolific performer whose screen work spans over four decades, she became one of Hollywood's most bankable stars and popular sex symbols during the 1980s ...

. Garcés co-starred in

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

' 2002 teen sci-fi adventure ''

'', starring opposite

Jesse Bradford Jesse Bradford (born May 28, 1979) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor at the age of five and received two Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film nominations for his performances in ''King of th ...

. She was then cast in

Richard Benjamin Richard Samuel Benjamin (born May 22, 1938) is an American actor and film director. He has starred in a number of well-known film productions, including '' Goodbye, Columbus'' (1969), based on the novella by Philip Roth; ''Catch-22'' (1970), f ...

's hip-hop comedy '' Marci X'' opposite

Lisa Kudrow Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She rose to fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004), which has since been named one of the greatest television cha ...

and Damon Wayans. Garcés was next seen opposite

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...

-winner

Tommy Lee Jones Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an American actor and film director. He has received four Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actor for his performance as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard in the 1993 thriller film '' T ...

in the Revolution Studios feature '' Man of the House.'' In 2004, she starred in ''

National Lampoon's Pledge This! ''National Lampoon's Pledge This!'' is a 2006 American comedy film starring Paris Hilton, who also served as an executive producer. The film was released straight to video. Plot When a dorm toilet explodes on the first day back to school, a gr ...

''. She was featured on '' CSI: Miami'' and starred in a four episode arc on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

's '' Law and Order: Special Victims Unit'', as well as guest spots on HBO's hit series ''

'' and '' Oz''. Garcés then landed a role as a cast member on '' The Shield''. Garcés appeared in

New Line Cinema New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after ...

's 2004 feature film ''

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle ''Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle'' (released in some international markets as ''Harold & Kumar Get the Munchies'') is a 2004 American buddy stoner comedy film directed by Danny Leiner, written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, and st ...

'', its 2008 sequel '' Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay'' and the 2011 sequel ''

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas ''A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas'' (previously titled ''A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas'') is a 2011 American buddy stoner comedy film directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson and written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. The sequel to ''Harold ...

'', as Maria, the love interest and later wife of

John Cho John Cho (born Cho Yo-Han; June 16, 1972) is an American actor known for his roles as Harold Lee in the '' Harold & Kumar'' films, and Hikaru Sulu in the ''Star Trek'' rebooted film series. Early in his career, Cho also starred in the Asian A ...

's character. Garcés was a series regular on the ABC drama series '' Defying Gravity'', playing documentarian Paula Morales during its single 2009 season. She was also featured in the video " Imagínate" with

Wisin & Yandel Wisin & Yandel is a Puerto Rican reggaeton duo consisting of Wisin and Yandel. They started their career in the late 1990s and have been together since, winning several awards including a Grammy Award in 2009. They became the first and the only ...

, and rapper T-Pain. Garcés has also co-starred on ''

'' as Pilar Santos, and had a recurring role as Dr. Kelly Hernandez in season two of the Syfy TV series ''

Warehouse 13 ''Warehouse 13'' is an American science fiction television series that originally ran from July 7, 2009, to May 19, 2014, on the Syfy network, and was executive produced by Jack Kenny and David Simkins for Universal Cable Productions. Described ...

''. In May 2011, Garcés appeared in "Off the Beaten Path", the 11th episode of season one of '' Breakout Kings''. In February 2013, Garcés appeared on the CBS series ''

Elementary Elementary may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Elementary'' (Cindy Morgan album), 2001 * ''Elementary'' (The End album), 2007 * ''Elementary'', a Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin album, 1977 Other uses in arts, entertainment, a ...

'', playing villainous police officer Paula Reyes in season one's episode "Details". Garcés also plays Ruby's mom in ''On My Block'', a Netflix series.

Aluna Comics

While attending a Comic-Con to promote one of the '' Harold & Kumar'' films, Garcés noted the sizeable Latino audience for superheroes, despite the low number of Latino characters in the genre. She created Further Lane Productions to issue a limited run comic book featuring the Latina superhero Aluna, later working with

S2 Games S2 Games was a video game development company which was founded by Marc "Maliken" DeForest, Jesse Hayes, and Sam McGrath, based in Rohnert Park, California. They also had a development location in Kalamazoo, Michigan. History Their first pr ...

to create, and voice, Aluna as a 2011 playable hero added to ''

Heroes of Newerth ''Heroes of Newerth'' (''HoN'') was a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game originally developed by S2 Games for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The game idea was derived from the '' Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne'' custom m ...

'', S2's

multiplayer online battle arena Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that i ...

video game. In time for the 2014 Comic-Con, she worked with

sekretagent Productions Sekretagent is a production company based in Los Angeles, California, focused on providing content creation, screenwriting, development and production for both films and video games. Founded in 2001, the company has provided writing services for ga ...

and Allegory Media to produce a four issue ''Aluna'' comic book series. In 2019, Aluna was developed into an action RPG.

Personal life

Garcés is a naturalized United States citizen. Her first child, daughter Skye Mahoney, was born in 1992. In 2002, she married entrepreneur and producer Antonio Hernandez. The couple have a son (born 2013).

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garces, Paula 1974 births Living people 20th-century Colombian actresses 21st-century American actresses 21st-century Colombian actresses Actresses from New York City American film actresses American television actresses Colombian emigrants to the United States Colombian film actresses Colombian television actresses Hispanic and Latino American actresses Naturalized citizens of the United States People from East Harlem