Rene Aranda


Rene Michelle Aranda, sometimes credited as Rene Aranda or Ren Aranda, is an American actress, best known for Papa and Expelled. She has won Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Outstanding Performance by an Actress and finished as a semifinalist in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Center's Irene Ryan scholarship program.

Early life and family

Aranda was born in Whittier, California, to Frank and Cheryl Aranda. She was raised in the nearby city of Chino Hills, where Aranda grew up with older brother Michael Aranda, older sister Sara Ann Aranda and younger brother Frank Nathan Aranda. Her mother was a self produced singer/songwriter through CD Baby and secretary to the college dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Cal State Fullerton until she died June 27, 2009, after a seven-year battle with breast cancer.

Career

2009–2012: Vocational training

Aranda is an alumnus of the Los Angeles City College Theater Academy, a three-year, audition-only acting conservatory at which Morgan Freeman, Mark Hamill, Cindy Williams and Bette Davis studied. Just before graduating in 2012, she won the national award "Outstanding Performance by an Actress" in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for her role as Willy the Space Freak in a gender-bent adaptation of Sam Shepard's The Unseen Hand.
For her role as "Van's Sister" in LACC's stage production of Bert V. Royal's in 2010, Aranda was nominated for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Irene Ryan scholarship, for which actors compete as a part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. She made it to the semi finals.

2013–2014: Early career

First invited to the set of network Cinelatino distributed film Smile Now Cry Later as a background actor by a fellow Theater Academy alum, Aranda was later asked to replace a crew member on a subsequent film before being locked in for two more features and by the fourth production, she served the company Plus Entertainment as an in-house producer, appearing on screen in each title she helped produce.
Aranda was featured with touring architect Alán Ramiro Manning in the Woodbury University Neo-Tribes Runway Event on May 1 and 2 2013, donning a Jenny Erin Davis design of a Bram Stoker's Dracula inspired Elisabeta, wearing Stila makeup.

2018: Music

In addition to her film and television career, Aranda debuted as a musical artist in 2018, releasing two pop singles a few months apart on Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio and other online streaming platforms.

Youth programs and education

Aranda is a regular volunteer reader and occasional coordinator for Reading to Kids, and ran on the foundation's charity relay team in the Los Angeles Marathon in 2016.
She also participates as a volunteer actor in Young Storytellers "Big Show" productions.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
2014HitREcord on TVHerselfEpisode 2: "Fantasy"
2014-2018WhatImDoingRightNowHerselfMichael Aranda's vlog, 9 episodes
2015TabloidBracamontes/ S.W.A.T2 episodes
2016Murder Among FriendsOfficer MejiaEpisode: "Unholy Friends"
2016Take My WifeHotel PatronEpisode: "Holiday Special"
2016Dangerous Games
2016-2017Blood RelativesPolice Officer2 episodes
2017Germany's Next Top ModelHerself3 episodes
2017BetrayedPolice Officer/ S.W.A.T.3 episodes
2017Extreme MeasuresCSIEpisode: "Oh Mother, Where Art Thou?"
2019IntrigueJury
2019CollegeHumor Originals:
Kingpin Katie
OfficerEpisode 8
2019CryptTV: Fight NightSpectator
2019Nova VitaNurse JuliePost-production

Awards and nominations