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You probably recognize Justina Machado’s familiar face as she has an impressive 30-year career in the entertainment industry. The actress, born in Chicago with Puerto Rican roots, recently made her small screen debut in the Prime Video series ‘The Horror of Dolores Roach,’ with a bloodthirsty character that effortlessly transitions between comedic and tragic.
“I feel very excited, I never played a character like this before, a character so free, limitless, and so complex with many layers,” she said in an interview with ¡HOLA! Américas.
This series is an adaptation of the popular podcast written by Aaron Mark, which starred Daphne Rubin-Vega and Bobby Cannavale. Given the podcast’s tremendous success, Amazon Studios and Blumhouse decided to bring it to television, casting Justina as Dolores Roach and Alejandro Hernández as Luis Batista.
The podcast tells the story of Dolores, who served 16 years in prison. Upon her release, she returns to her beloved Washington Heights neighborhood in New York, only to find it transformed beyond recognition. Broke and jobless, she stumbles upon Luis Batista, a familiar face from her past, who, alongside his shop, Empanada Loca, manages to endure the neighborhood’s gentrification. This chance encounter reignites Dolores’s sense of belonging. Initially, things fall into place as she secures a new job and finds support from Luis, but this path gets quickly disrupted by a series of events that threaten her new life.
In addition to her role as Dolores Roach, Justina Machado has appeared in a dozen films such as ‘The Call,’ ‘The Purge: Anarchy,’ and ‘Switched Before Birth.’ On television, she’s made her mark in acclaimed series like ‘Queen of the South,’ ‘Jane the Virgin,’ ‘One Day at a Time,’ ‘Six Feet Under,’ and many more.
Indeed, in ‘Six Feet Under’, Justina left a lasting impression on television audiences, portraying the character Vanessa Díaz. Her outstanding performance and that of her fellow castmates earned them the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble Performance in a Dramatic Series. Beyond her accomplishments in television and film, Justina has acted on Broadway and showcased her dancing talent in TV shows like ‘Dancing with the Stars’.