Tonantzin Carmelo is a multifaceted American actress with a diverse range of credits, including lead and supporting roles in movies, television series, documentaries, video games, and theater. Her breakout performance in Steven Spielberg's Into the West earned her several awards and nominations, including a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female in a Television Movie or Miniseries.
Recent highlights include prime roles in Spain and Australia for the television series The English (BBC) and La Brea (NBC). Throughout her career, Tonantzin has received praise for her performances, including a win for Best Actress at the American Indian Film Festival for her role in the independent thriller Imprint.
She was also named "An Indie Darling to Crave" at the Sundance film festival 2015 for her role as Teresa in the film Entertainment, opposite John C. Riley. Tonantzin has appeared in several video games, including Dead Space, The Crew, Lego Marvel's Avengers, and Cyberpunk 2077, and was recognized by Maxim Magazine as one of the Hottest Video Game Babes of the Year for her portrayal of the villainous character Kendra Daniels in Dead Space.
As a talented choreographer, Tonantzin's work has been featured in the Amazon TV series Undone and the opera Sweetland, for which she was described as a "crucial choreographer" by the LA Times. She has a penchant for languages and enjoys learning new dialects, having taught herself to speak Spanish as a teenager and working with language specialists to learn dialects for various roles.
Tonantzin's diverse talents can be traced back to her multicultural roots, as a Southern California girl from suburban Orange County of Indigenous and Latina descent. She began her performing path through Native dances and music, touring with cultural groups throughout North America, and later discovered her love for acting while studying at UC Irvine.
While in college, she began acting in theater productions and independent films, and has also performed as a singer with the band Trio del Alma and recorded on three albums for Canyon Records. Her first professional acting venture was an educational musical theater show produced by the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, which toured the Los Angeles area and allowed her to make the leap from dancer/musician to a professional actress.
Tonantzin has had an ongoing relationship with Native Voices at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles, where she has performed on stage and served on the advisory board. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband and is a California native plant, wildlife, and outdoor enthusiast. In her free time, she enjoys restoring her yard as a native wildlife habitat, observing birds, and occasionally rescuing opossums, while continuing to perform as a musical entertainer, cultural educator, and stage actress.
