Adriana Barraza
Adriana Barraza González is a Mexican actress, acting coach, and director born on March 5, 1956, in Toluca, State of Mexico, Mexico. She is known for helping develop acting talent in Mexico City and later for her work in films and TV around the world.
Early in her career, Barraza co-founded the Actors Workshop in Mexico City with director Sergio Jiménez, teaching their own version of Method acting. She directed TV episodes and trained many actors before moving in front of the camera in the 1990s. She now runs an acting school in Miami, Florida called Adriana Barraza’s Black Box, with her husband Arnaldo Pipke and daughter Carolina.
Her film work includes Amores perros (2000) as Octavio’s mother and Babel (2006) as Amelia, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She has appeared in Henry Poole Is Here (2008), Drag Me to Hell (2009), From Prada to Nada (2011), Cake (2014), Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019) as Abuelita Valerie, and Rambo: Last Blood (2019) as Maria Beltran. She also contributed to TV projects, including a long-time role on Mujer, Casos de la Vida Real (1985–2003) and The Strain (2014–2016).
Barraza has won several awards and honors, notably for Babel, including a nomination for the Academy Award and wins from groups like Gotham Awards, San Francisco and Palm Springs film critics, and other industry honors. She has also been recognized with ALMA and Imagen Award wins and nominations for her broader body of work.
Personal life: Barraza became pregnant at 18 and has a daughter, Carolina Valsagna (born 1975); the father is not known, as he abandoned her. Her first husband was Carlos Valsagna, whom she married in 1978; he adopted her daughter. Her second husband is Arnaldo Pipke. She studied acting at the Fine Arts School of the Autonomous University of Chihuahua.
Today, Adriana Barraza is active as an actress and an acting teacher, continuing to influence both Spanish- and English-speaking film and television.
This page was last edited on 1 February 2026, at 22:48 (CET).