Ana Ortiz

 ( 1971 Births ) 

Switching to singing, Ortiz attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City and later the University of the Arts in Philadelphia before making her professional stage debut in a regional theater production of Dangerous Liaisons. Her additional stage credits include portraying Chrissy in a European touring production of Hair, regional theater productions such as Dog Lady and the Cuban Swimmer and in the South Coast Repertory Theater's production of References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot. After joining LAByrinth Theatre Company, LAByrinth Theatre Company she appeared Off-Broadway in In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, directed by Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman and named one of the 10-best plays of 1999 by the magazine Time Out New York.

Ortiz appeared in several television shows including NYPD Blue, Everybody Loves Raymond, Commander In Chief, ER, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. She had her first series regular role in short-lived NBC comedy series Kristin (2001). She later starred in another short-lived sitcom, called A.U.S.A. in 2003, and later had recurring roles in the FX drama Over There, and ABC series Boston Legal.

In addition to her role on Ugly Betty, Ortiz was active in films, which include starring roles in Tortilla Heaven and Labor Pains. She also had a voice role in , and starred in the made-for-television movie in 2008. Ortiz also had a guest-starring role on Army Wives during its second season, playing a waitress named Sandi. She also appeared in the 2010 music video for Enrique Iglesias and Juan Luis Guerra's "Cuando me enamoro".

In 2012, Ortiz was cast as a lead character on the ABC comedy drama pilot Devious Maids. While ABC chose not to pick it up to series, Lifetime picked up the pilot with a thirteen-episode order. The series premiered June 23, 2013, on Lifetime with positive reviews from critics. In the show, she plays the lead role of Marisol Duarte (the alias of Professor Marisol Suarez). Also in 2013, Ortiz was special guest star in the ABC primetime soap opera, Revenge, as Bizzy Preston. In 2014, Ortiz guest-starred in episodes of two ABC shows: How to Get Away with Murder and Black-ish.

In 2014 Ortiz was cast in the gay-drama film Love is All You Need? (2016), based on the 2011 short film with the same name.

Devious Maids was canceled after four seasons, in 2016. The following year, Ortiz starred in her third unsold pilot, a comedy called Charlie Foxtrot. She did voice over work in the 2018 film Ralph Breaks the Internet.

In 2019, Ortiz appeared in the main cast of the comedy drama Whiskey Cavalier, playing FBI profiler Susan Sampson.

In 2020, Ortiz starred in the acclaimed Hulu series Love, Victor as Isabel Salazar, mother of the title character Victor Salazar. Her role is acclaimed by critics.

Ortiz is active in raising awareness against domestic abuse, citing her own experiences when she was in her 20s and involved in a romantic relationship that turned physically abusive. In an article for USA Today, Ortiz notes that the final scene from the Ugly Betty episode "How Betty Got Her Grieve Back", in which Hilda sat on her bed staring at the bathroom after realizing that Santos had died, was drawn from that experience: "I used some of that subconsciously ... It's something that is always with me".