Taller Telemundo graduates Actores 2007.

Telemundo announced the graduation of 34 students from Taller Telemundo: Actores. The network’s education initiative is designed to inspire, discover and train aspiring television actors. In an alliance with Miami Dade College’s North Campus, Telemundo once again partnered with academia to create a dynamic curriculum that specifically prepares and trains aspiring actors for the television medium, with a focus on appealing to the diverse, fast-growing U.S.-Hispanic audience. The students will be honored at a special ceremony held this evening at the North Campus. Attendees will include: Don Browne, President, Telemundo and creator of the program, Dr. José A. Vicente, President of Miami Dade North Campus, Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee, Adriana Barraza, and Mimi Belt, Vice President of Artistic Development for Telemundo, both of whom co-directed the course and Katja Blichfeld, Casting, NBC Universal Television .

For today’s ceremony, 17 student-performed scenes have been selected to be screened in Spanish, providing a sampling of the best work to come out of the intensive 300-hour course. In addition, co-directors, Adriana Barraza and Mimi Belt, saw great potential in 15 students to cross-over into the English-language market, commissioning them to perform additional scenes in English, which will also be screened at the ceremony.

In line with previous joint diversity efforts between Telemundo and NBC, Taller Telemundo: Actores represents one more avenue to discover and develop new bilingual talent for the NBCU family.

“One of the primary goals of Telemundo is to attract, retain and grow the best talent in the world. Today is an important milestone in that effort because we are graduating our first class dedicated to the artistic discipline of acting, said Don Browne, President of Telemundo. This is a great opportunity for those aspiring to be working actors and continues Telemundo’s effort to open doors for the next generation of great talent.”

Miami Dade North Campus President, Dr. José Vicente added, “Both institutions are committed to the development, growth and overall education of Hispanic students. This common philosophy is what makes our partnership so strong year after year.”

Following are the 34 student graduates of the prestigious program as well as where they came from to attend the course:

Elena Adames (New York, New York)
Debora Vanessa Adriazola (Miami, Florida)
Cesar Omar Aparicio (Los Angeles, California)
Miguel Angel Calvillo (Phoenix, Arizona)
Jorge Cárdenas (Miami, Florida)
Ruth Mery Carvajal (New York, New York)
Lorenzo Duarte (Miami, Florida)
Anabella Feaugas (Miami, Florida)
Ibeth Guadalupe Félix Quintero (Sinaloa, Mexico)
Carlos Mauricio Ferro (Mexico City, Mexico)
Jonathan Florez (New York, New York)
Alejandro de Francisco (Miami, Florida – Telemundo Employee)
Tely Ganas (Miami, Florida)
Lyduan González (Tampa, Florida)
Karla Gómez (Miami, Florida)
Marisela González Servat (Miami, Florida)
Mirella Grisales (Miami, Florida)
Liset Jimenez(Santa Clara, Cuba- arrived in Miami 8 months ago)
Jorge León Kirschner (Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico)
Aneudy Lara (Miami, Florida)
Maria Alejandra Lugo (Miami, Florida)
Jacqueline Marquez (Living in Miami, Florida…raised in Texas)
Zarife Maza (Tabasco, Mexico)
Adriana Oliveros (Miami, Florida)
Macarena Paz (Los Angeles, California)
Joysette Rivera (Miami, Florida – Telemundo employee)
César Rodriguez (Los Angeles, California)
Mariana Silva (Brazilian who recently learned Spanish – lived in Mexico, now lives in Miami, Florida)
Mónica Staackmann (Miami, Florida)
Isha Sumner (New York, New York)
Nelson Tallaferro (born in US – lives in Miami, Florida)
Mayte Valiente (Miami, Florida Carlos Andrés Vargas (Miami,FL)Carlos Villuendas (Valencia, Spain)

These talented students were all selected from an initial pool of 1,200 applicants worldwide. Each graduate successfully moved through the first two phases of the course. The initial phase consisted of four weeks of intense instruction, 20 hours per week, for a total of 100 classroom hours. During this time, Director Adriana Barraza and a team of instructors and industry professionals, trained and developed the students in various critical areas of television acting: 1) acting techniques; 2) script analysis and interpretation; 3) acting for the camera; 4) movement; 5) voice and diction (neutral accent), with an emphasis on developing an awareness and appeal for the diverse U.S. Spanish-speaking television audience. Throughout the final two-month phase (200 classroom hours), the top students received more intensive training, which included improvisation and acting exercises in drama and comedy, as well as scenes specifically written for the telenovela genre. Many of their classroom exercises were videotaped.