Linara Washington was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, to a beautiful Brazilian woman and an American son of a preacher man. Her mother, who spoke no English at the time, has gifted Linara with fluency in Portuguese. Linara is currently expanding her linguistic abilities by adding German to her repertoire, with aspirations to master French, Italian, Japanese, and Hebrew as well.
The next sixteen years of her life were spent moving from college town to college town, resulting in Linara having lived in over 14 states and a brief stint in Brazil as a baby. During a three-year stay in St. Paul, Minnesota, Linara attended The Blake School, where she began cultivating her passion for acting. At Blake, she had the opportunity to attend numerous shows at the renowned Guthrie Theatre, located just one block from the school, and participated in the Dudley Riggs Improvisational Theater's enrichment program for high school-aged youth.
Linara's experience as an extra on the film Mighty Ducks 2, which was filmed at her high school's skating rink, sparked her desire to pursue a career in the movies. Initially, she decided to pursue a more practical course of study, enrolling in the prestigious University of Chicago as a Pre-med Biology major. However, she soon found herself taking writing classes and participating in campus theater productions, eventually changing her major to English and pursuing a career in acting.
Linara's college mentors, poet Elizabeth Alexander and director/professor Curt Columbus, played a significant role in her artistic growth, and she did not inform her parents of her decision to pursue acting until graduation day. Thankfully, they did not disown her. Her gutsy move proved to be the right one, as she has since had the pleasure of working at several acclaimed Chicago theaters, including The Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Northlight, and the Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens.
Linara has appeared in over 30 commercials nationally and internationally, and has had recurring roles on "American Dreams" and "E.R." as well as guest star spots on "Cold Case", "Close To Home", and "Without A Trace." She recently worked with Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and acclaimed director Marc Forster in the upcoming film "Stranger Than Fiction."
When not on stage or screen, Linara enjoys dancing, especially samba, cooking, learning the guitar, painting, making jewelry, reading, and writing. She is currently working on two screenplays, including an adaptation of a stage play she wrote seven years ago on The Hottentot Venus.
