Diane Guerrero Biography

Diane Guerrero (born July 21, 1986) is an American actress and author. She is known for her roles as inmate Maritza Ramos on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black and Lina on Jane the Virgin. Among her other roles was a recurring role on Are We There Yet? Guerrero grew up in Boston and remained there after the rest of her family was deported to Colombia. She is an advocate for immigration reform. Her role on Orange Is the New Black has contributed to three consecutive wins for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Guerrero is the author of In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, a memoir about her parents being detained and deported when she was fourteen.

Early life

Guerrero was born in New Jersey to Colombian parents and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. As the only member of her immediate family with United States citizenship, she remained in the U.S. when her parents and older brother were deported back to Colombia when she was 14. Her parents had pursued legal citizenship, but their representation failed them.

Guerrero was raised in the Jamaica Plain and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston after being taken in by other Colombian families. She has had an interest in acting since a young age and took advantage of free opportunities in the neighborhood or at school. Then she attended Boston Arts Academy, a performing arts high school, where she was in the music department. Among her high school activities was singing with a jazz group, but she anticipated pursuing political science and communications in college. In 2010, she appeared in the Faces music video that was shot in Norwood, Massachusetts for Louie Bello. Her first job after college was in a law office. At age 24, she decided to pursue a career in acting. In 2011, she moved to New York City and studied acting at the Susan Batson Studios where she met her manager Josh Taylor. Guerrero's life experience compels her to advocate for immigration reform and is an influence that she draws upon in her acting.

Career

She auditioned for a role on Devious Maids, but was cast in Orange is the New Black, where she plays a Bronx-bred character that she feels is likely Puerto Rican. For season 2, she was part of the cast that earned recognition for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards. The cast earned recognition for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series again at the 22nd Screen Actors Guild Awards and 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards. She has had a recurring role on Are We There Yet?.

In 2014, she appeared in Emoticon ;), a comedy about a May-December romance in which her character's father is involved with a doctoral candidate. Her performance in this film as Amanda ("Mandy") Nevins, an adopted teenage child, elicited positive criticism such as a description of a "well-drawn smaller moment" that was "beautifully rendered" according to Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter and a performance that "command sympathy" according to Inkoo Kang of the Los Angeles Times.

One of her upcoming roles is as an 1800s Cuban confederate spy, loosely based on the life of Loreta Janeta Velazquez, for Peter and John. She was cast in The CW's series Jane the Virgin in a recurring role. In February 2015, Guerrero was cast as the female lead in CBS' television pilot for Super Clyde, but the show was not picked up for series when CBS announced its fall schedule in May. Guerrero has upcoming film roles in Happy Yummy Chicken, Beyond Control and The Godmother.

In 2016, Guerrero released In the Country We Love: My Family Divided a memoir about her parents being detained and deported when she was fourteen. The book's written with Michelle Burford and published by Henry Holt and Co.

Guerrero is the lead in a CBS drama under development for the 2017-18 United States network television season based on and sharing the title of her memoir, In the Country We Love. Guerrero will portray a successful corporate attorney who takes on pro bono cases for undocumented immigrants after her own past as the child of deported parents is revealed by a family emergency.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Ashley/Amber	Ashley	Short film
2011	Festival	Ivan Model 2
2012	Open Vacancy	Tatiana
2012	Saved by the Pole	Princess	Short film
2014	Emoticon ;)	Amanda Nevins
2014	My Man Is a Loser	Malea
2015	Beyond Control	Tasha
2015	Love Comes Later		Short film
2015	Peter and John	Lucia
2016	Happy Yummy Chicken	Cheryl Davis
TBD	Beyond Control	Tasha	In post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Body of Proof	Sara Gonzales	Episode: "Buried Secrets"
2012	Are We There Yet?	Stacey	4 episodes
2013-present	Orange Is the New Black	Maritza Ramos	Recurring role
2013	Pushing Dreams	Lynette Melendez
2013	Blue Bloods	Carmen	Episode: "This Way Out"
2013	Person of Interest	Ashley	Episode: "Liberty"
2014	Taxi Brooklyn	Carmen Lopez	Episode: "1.2"
2014-present	Jane the Virgin	Lina Santillan	Recurring role
2015	Super Clyde	Maddy