Meet the Team
Josefina Lopez
Founder
Josefina López (writer/theater and film producer/performer) is best known for authoring the play and co-authoring the 2002 Sundance Audience Award Winning Film Real Women Have Curves. Josefina started her writing career at 17 and has had over 150 productions of her many plays throughout the country. Josefina has been working as professional screenwriter in Hollywood for over 30 years with countless development deals and screenplay assignments born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico in 1969, Josefina Lopez five years old when she and her family migrated to the United States in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights.
Josefina was undocumented for thirteen years before she received amnesty in 1987 and eventually became a U.S. Citizen in 1995. Josefina is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, has an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA's School of Theater Film & Television.
Josefina is the Founding Artistic Director of Casa 0101 Theater and has produced over 200 plays celebrating Latino immigrants and the LGBT and BIPOC communities. She produced her first feature film detained in the desert based on her award winning play and won for best dramatic feature at the Los Angeles Women's International Film Festival. 20 Pounds to Happiness is the second film she produces under The Real Women Have Curves Studio Production Banner. The musical Real Women Have Curves opened on Broadway April 27, 2025 an had its world premier at American Repertory Theater at Harvard in 2024.
She is currently working on. adapting her play A Woman Named Gloria into a screenplay and working on her next musical celebrating Mexican Braceros and Musical Romantic Boleros titled Men with Guitars and Writing a One Woman show called Hollywood Chola.
Check out www.JosefinaLopez.biz and www.casa0101.org for more information.
Cristina Nava
Co-Director
Cristina was born, raised in Los Angeles. She is an award-winning WGA screenwriter, award-winning director and a veteran producer of independent films and television content.
Currently, the feature film, romantic comedy she produced, SAY A LITTLE PRAYER, starring multi-platinum, Grammy award-winning Luis Fonsi, Executive Produced by Edward James Olmos, directed by Patrick Perez Vidauri and written by Nancy De Los Santos is being acquired by Samuel Goldwyn.
Cristina co-wrote and produced the award-winning romantic comedy feature film titled DIVORCE BAIT which was originally acquired by Samuel Goldwyn.
Cristina wrote and produced the award-winning Romantic Comedy, IN OTHER WORDS, starring Chris Kattan (SNL), Edy Ganem ("Devious Maids") and Bryan McClure (Star Command, Atlanta), Renee Victor (With Love), which was acquired and released in February of 2020 on HBOMax.
Cristina is a versatile writer and producer, and, merging these two worlds, she has worked as a story producer for TELEMUNDO’s popular show, La Voz (The Voice)and for Nickelodeon's “Treasure Truck”.
As a successful writer and producer, Cristina felt she wanted to take her artistry to the next level as a director, so she directed her college friend’s movie, “Free Lunch” as her directorial debut, and she has won Best Feature and Best Director at festivals.
Iris Almaraz
Co-Director
Iris is an East LA Chicana filmmaker whose formative years spanned from periods of homelessness to attending one of the most prestigious arts high schools in the country. After earning her BFA in Cinema, her first short film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Her $30K feature film Delusions of Grandeur premiered at Cinequest with sold-out screenings and was named a top-five film pick by Latine festival programmers in 2013.
She has since created numerous international award-winning shorts. Her current project, Red Onion, began its 2024 festival run with a premiere at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, after being workshopped in the Women of Color Filmmakers’ Advanced Directing Program.
Three of Iris’ scripts have been finalists at the Sundance Labs. Her most recent finalist, Rocketship, has a short proof-of-concept currently in post-production and was a 2023 recipient of the Eastside Arts Initiative. Also in 2023, Iris received the Jan Marino Scholarship, enabling her to pursue an MFA in Screenwriting at Stephens College, which she completed in 2025. That same year, she was selected as a fellow for the Mentoring Latina Directors Fellowship.
With years of industry experience, Iris has taught filmmaking to Latinas and at-risk youth through Creative M Planet and Operation Street Kidz. As Co-Director of the Latina Independent Film Extravaganza (LIFE), she works passionately to grow and support the Latina directing community so it can thrive and prosper.
