Yareli Arizmendi


Yareli Arizmendi is a Mexican actress, writer, and director.
Arizmendi was born in Mexico City. Arizmendi went to high school in Kansas then received a BA in Political Science and her MFA in Theatre from the graduate acting program at the University of California, San Diego. She played Rosaura in the film Like Water for Chocolate written by Laura Esquivel and directed by Alfonso Arau. Yareli met her husband Sergio Arau on the set of the film. They immediately collaborated on the political satire La Envidia Del Penny/Penny Envy which played in Mexico and the United States.

Career

Her most notable role is as Rosaura in the film Like Water for Chocolate.
Her one-woman show Nostalgia Maldita: 1-900 Mexico was performed on a stairmaster. Moving through many characters Yareli details how she wound up on the other side of the border in her pursuit of Donny Osmond.
She also starred in the 2004 film A Day Without a Mexican which she wrote and produced with her husband Sergio Arau who directed it.
Arizmendi is also known for her roles in A Day Without a Mexican and Emmy-winning television shows such as Six Feet Under, Heroes, House, The Agency, 24, Medium, NYPD Blue and Chicago Hope.
She worked with Luis Valdez and Teatro Campesino and toured with Teatro de la Esperanza to Nicaragua. She translated and staged Latin American plays, as well as developed bilingual in-schools programs with The Old Globe Theater.
In 1995 Arizmendi received the Princess Grace Foundation Statuette Award for Outstanding Achievement and Professional Development from Princess Caroline of Monaco. Her PBS Series Nostalgia Maldita 1-900-Mexico is based on a one-woman show that received critical acclaim in the United States.
Recent work includes the motion pictures Don’t Let me Drown and AMERICA with Edward James Olmos. Arizmendi is also promoting the film Naco es Chido a movie destined to be a classic of Latin cinema.

Family

Arizmendi is married to Sergio Arau whom she met on the set of Like Water for Chocolate.