America Ferrera Movies
Few aspiring actresses could ever hope to experience the early career success of Ugly Betty starlet America Ferrera. In the scant four years after earning a Sundance Jury Award, an Independent Spirit Award nomination, and a Young Artist Award nomination for her role as a first-generation Mexican-American girl teetering on the cusp of womanhood for Real Women Have Curves, the hardworking... (read more) actress rose quickly through the ranks to become one of television's brightest young stars.
A Los Angeles native and the youngest of six siblings born to Honduran parents, Ferrera, born April 18, 1984, was raised by her mother in Woodland Hills, CA. Though at first hesitant to pursue a career on camera, the natural-born actress and high school valedictorian displayed an instinctive talent on the stage that seemed to signal she had found her true calling. It was during this time that Ferrera began working as a waitress to fund her classes and pay for headshots, and shortly thereafter she made her screen debut as a cheerleader in the Disney Channel feature Gotta Kick It Up! (2002). Later, while attending summer theater camp at Northwestern University, Ferrera taped an audition for Real Women Have Curves; after six auditions, she was ecstatic to learn that she had been cast as first-generation American Ana Garcia. It was the perfect role for the emerging actress, as she too was among the first of her family to be born in America.
In the following two years, Ferrera appeared in a number of film and television projects while studying International Relations and Theater at the University of Southern California, with high-profile roles in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Lords of Dogtown helping to form a solid foundation for an enduring career. Roles in the addiction drama 3:52 and the working-class drama Steel City were quick to follow, and in 2006 Ferrera became a small-screen sensation with her role as an unattractive secretary working for a popular fashion magazine in ABC's Ugly Betty.
An Americanized remake of the popular Columbian comedy drama Yo Soy Betty, la Fea, Ugly Betty was produced by screen star Salma Hayek and became an immediate hit with viewers. When the Golden Globes were handed out in early 2007, young star Ferrera was visibly thrilled to be bestowed with a Best Actress award for her work on the series. She also won a the Screen Actors Guild Award for Female Actor in a Comedy Series shortly thereafter. That same year, Ferrera would expand her resumé to include the role of producer for the dramatic crime thriller Towards Darkness -- in which she also starred as a girl who shares a sensitive relationship with a young kidnapping victim.
2008 saw Ferrera with a starring role in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, and the actress would voice the role of Astrid in 2010’s animated hit How to Train Your Dragon. The same year, Ferrera appeared in The Dry Land; the film premiered at te Sundance Film Festival in 2010, and won the Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Dallas International Film Festival. Ferrera will co-star alongside Rosario Dawson in Chavez, a biopic depicting the life of labor activist Cesar E. Chavez slated for release in 2013. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
How to Train Your Dragon 2
2014
DreamWorks Animation returns to the world of dragons and Vikings in this sequel to their successful 2010 outing How to Train Your Dragon. The original film followed the...
Chavez
2013
Michael Pena stars as labor activist Cesar E. Chavez in this biopic directed by Diego Luna. America Ferrera and Rosario Dawson co-star. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi...
The Dry Land
R 2010
A soldier comes home from the war but can't find peace in his heart and mind in this independent drama. James (Ryan O'Nan) returns to his hometown in Texas after serving...
American Tragic
2010
A young war veteran (Ryan O'Nan) hits the road with a friend on a soul-searching trip in this Maya Entertainment production. Ryan Piers Williams directs from his own...
Our Family Wedding
PG13 2010
Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia headline this culture-clash comedy centered on the conflict between two headstrong fathers whose children are about to be married. With...
Our Family Wedding
PG13 2010
Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia headline this culture-clash comedy centered on the conflict between two headstrong fathers whose children are about to be married. With...
How to Train Your Dragon
PG 2010
The son of a Viking chief must capture a dragon in order to mark his passage into manhood and prove his worthiness to the tribe in directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois'...
Ugly Betty: Season 03
2008
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Towards Darkness
R 2008
First time director/screenwriter Antonio Negret details the frightening trend of kidnapping in Colombia with this tense tale of a young photographer who is abducted and held...
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
PG13 2008
The 2008 sequel to the female buddy film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants constitutes an adaptation of Ann Brashares' novel {-Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of...
Tinker Bell
G 2008
Before joining Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, Tinker Bell and her fairy brethren were busy creating their own special magic in Pixie Hollow, where they go about the business of...
Ugly Betty: Season 02
2007
Betty Suarez is smart, sweet and hard working. They only problem is that she s not thin and beautiful like all her co-workers at Mode, the high-fashion magazine where she works....
Under the Same Moon
PG13 2007
The debut feature from director Patricia Riggen, this drama centers on a young boy's journey across the U.S./Mexico border to be reunited with his mother. Adrian Alonso...
Ugly Betty: Season 01
2006
Audiences are cheering for a vibrant overachiever with the spirit and the smarts to live her dream. America Ferrera stars as go-getter Betty Suarez, a true beauty in the skin-deep...
Lords of Dogtown
PG13 2005
The true story of the kids who created modern skateboard culture is recreated in this drama. In the early '70s, skateboards were seen as a fad of the 1960s that had all but...
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
PG 2005
Ann Brashares' best-selling novel for young adults comes to the big screen in this engaging comedy drama. Carmen (America Ferrera), Bridget (Blake Lively),...
3:52
2005
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How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer
R 2005
Georgina Garcia Riedel's comedy How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer stars Lucy Gallardo, Elizabeth Peña, and America Ferrara as three generations in a...
Steel City
R 2005
A young man struggles to hold his family together while keeping his own life on track in this independent drama. P.J. Lee (Thomas Guiry) is a teenager growing up in a...
Plainsong
2004
Based on a novel by Kent Haruf, the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie Plainsong looks back on a year in the lives of several very special people in a close-knit Colorado...