Justina Machado

Justina Machado, actor and featured participant, continues to endear audiences and earn critical acclaim with each new role. Machado starred as the lead in Netflix’s highly reviewed reimagining of Norman Lear’s ONE DAY AT A TIME. After being canceled, the show triggered an outpouring of support and has been revived by PopTV for the fourth season to debut in 2020. She will reprise her role as “Penelope,” a newly single war veteran raising her two children with the help of her mother, and will direct one episode and receive a producer credit in the newest season. This year, Machado also appeared opposite Gina Rodriguez in the fifth season of the CW comedy series JANE THE VIRGIN and voiced the character “Carmen” in Disney’s animated series ELENA OF AVALOR. Machado is perhaps best known for her role as “Vanessa Diaz” in HBO’s SIX FEET UNDER, which ended its five-season run in 2005 with an impressive accumulation of award nominations and wins, including a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. On the big screen, Machado was most recently seen in THE PURGE: ANARCHY. Additional film credits include THE ACCIDENTAL HUSBAND opposite Uma Thurman, Bernard Tevenier’s IN THE ELECTRIC MIST opposite Tommy Lee Jones and the independent film PEDRO, which debuted at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Her television credits include QUEEN OF THE SOUTH, GREY’S ANATOMY, WELCOME TO THE FAMILY, PRIVATE PRACTICE, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, DEVIOUS MAIDS, SWITCHED AT BIRTH, THE FOSTERS and MURDER POLICE. On the stage, Machado made her Broadway debut in the Tony Award^®- winning Best Musical IN THE HEIGHTS at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, as well as the world premiere production of A FREE MAN OF COLOR, directed by George Wolfe, at the Lincoln Center Theater. Machado also starred opposite Marc Feuerstein in Neil Labutte’s SOME GIRLS at the Geffen Theater. Born and raised in Chicago as the eldest of five children in a family of Puerto Rican descent, Machado started her thespian career upon graduating from high school. Her stellar performances on stage at the Latino Chicago Theater paved the way for her now-burgeoning career.