Famous Chilean Film & Theater Personalities

Cote de Pablo is a Chilean-American singer and actress. She is best known for playing Ziva David in the popular action police procedural TV series NCIS. After co-hosting episodes of a Latin-American talk show titled Control, at the age of 15, Cote de Pablo went on to establish herself as a successful actress and musician.

Chilean-French filmmaker and artist, Alejandro Jodorowsky, is best known for his avant-garde films. A multifaceted personality, he is also a novelist, poet, musician, composer, and spiritual guru. His films are filled with surreal images and mysticism. A much-revered figure in international cinema, he is the recipient of the Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF).

Legendary Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara was eventually gearing up for a career as a priest and later studied theater, eventually switching to music. He pioneered the nueva canción genre of music in the middle of extreme political turmoil. He was tortured and shot dead during dictator Augusto Pinochet’s reign.

Felicia Montealegre was a Chilean actress whose professional achievements were overshadowed by her personal life, thanks to her marriage with popular American conductor, composer, and pianist Leonard Bernstein. She was married to Bernstein from 1951 until her death in 1978.

Adan Jodorowsky is a French-Mexican actor, musician, and director. Apart from his work as a musician, Jodorowsky has earned fame as a director, winning critical appreciation and prestigious awards for his 2012 film The Voice Thief. In 2014, the movie was selected by Diane Pernet to compete at the world's first festival about fashion films, ASVOFF.

Chilean director Raúl Ruiz is remembered as one of the most innovative filmmakers of World Cinema of the 1960s. The Chilean National Prize winner is famous for his critically appreciated films such as Klimt and Mysteries of Lisbon but is best known for his French films such as Three Crowns of the Sailor.

Chilean novelist and screenwriter Antonio Skármeta is known for his iconic novel Burning Patience, which inspired the Academy Award-winning movie The Postman. Besides writing, he has also taught literature and has served as the Chilean ambassador to Germany. His literary works earned him the Chilean National Prize for Literature.