Determined to become an actress, she studied acting at the High School of Performing Arts in New York, having as companions Ving Rhames, who would be her co-star in Jacob’s Ladder, and with Esai morales, your co star in La Bamba. After a few years dedicated to the theater, he made his film debut in the late 1970s in the movie El Súper, shot in 1979.
The movie that made her popular was La Bamba, filmed in 1987 under the orders of director Luis Valdez.
From 1981 it should be noted They all laughed by Peter Bogdanovich. In 1986 she was selected to be part of A Loose Crazy in Hollywood by Paul mazursky.
From the 1990s are Acero and Jacob’s Ladder, both filmed in 1990. Lone star was the movie he shot in 1996 and with which he was able to win a Independent Spirit Award.
Two years later, in 1998 it appears Terror on the net, and in 2004 he lends his voice to the animated film The Incredibles.
He has also done some projects for television such as I Married Dora, a sitcom that only lasted 13 episodes and was made in 1987. On the last show the cast broke the so-called fourth wall of suspended disbelief.
Regarding her love life, this actress married in the first instance with William Kliber divorcing in 1988. Several years later, in 1994 she married Hans Rolla, a carpenter by profession with whom she has had two children, a boy and a girl.
His career continued to stand out on the small screen, appearing in the series Resurrection Bully of the year 2000, has been in some episodes of Los Angeles Law, and in Sad Song of Hill Street.