Valery Milagros Ortiz (born August 1, 1984) is a Puerto Rican actress and model. She has appeared in various television series including ''

South of Nowhere ''South of Nowhere'' is an American teen drama television series created by Thomas W. Lynch. It first aired on November 4, 2005, on Noggin (brand), Noggin as part of its teen programming block, The N. The show was produced by Noggin LLC in assoc ...

'' (2005–2008), '' Diary of a Single Mom'' (2009–2011), '' Hit the Floor'' (2013–2016) and '' Gabby Duran & the Unsittables'' (2019–2021). Ortiz has also appeared in films including ''

Date Movie ''Date Movie'' is a 2006 American romantic comedy parody film written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, directed by Seltzer, and produced by Paul Schiff and Friedberg. It was released on February 17, 2006 by 20th Century Fox and stars Alys ...

'' (2006), ''Dumbbells'' (2014) and ''Thriller'' (2018).

Early life

Ortiz was born in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...

and raised in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. Passionate to become a "ballerina" and she explored her dancing talents after receiving a scholarship to ''The Southern Ballet Theater Performing Art Centre'' in Orlando. She continued dancing but eased out of it in middle school as her interest in theatre and acting grew. She worked in Orlando as an extra on the

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

backlot. Following in her older brother's footsteps, she was accepted into the

Dr. Phillips High School Dr. Phillips High School is a public high school in Dr. Phillips, Florida, United States, near Orlando. It serves the Dr. Phillips census-designated place (CDP), the Bay Hill CDP, and the residential portion of Lake Buena Vista. History Dr ...

performing arts magnet program. After four years of study, Ortiz began working in several productions like Latins Anonymous (Orlando Fringe Festival), West Side Story as Maria, A Midsummer Night's Dream as Helena, The Vagina Monologues (Orlando Premiere) and The Edinburgh, Scotland Fringe Festival.

Career

While attending the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

for a Bachelor in Fine Arts, Ortiz was given an opportunity to work on television show ''

Splat! SPLAT! (short for an RF Signal Propagation, Loss, And Terrain analysis tool) is a GNU GPL-licensed terrestrial radio propagation model application initially written for Linux but has since been ported for Windows and OS X. SPLAT! can use the Lon ...

'' as a host. After the first season, a two-week road trip "vacation" to Los Angeles turned into permanent relocation to Los Angeles. Ortiz quickly started working on a local television show called ''LATV Live'' as a VJ. While working at the

Hard Rock Cafe Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a British-based multinational chain of theme restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and rol ...

as a hostess, Ortiz was cast as in the comedy ''

'' as Jell-O, a

Jennifer Lopez Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she rema ...

impersonation. During the movie's filming, she was cast the television series ''

''. Shortly after, she was cast in the pilot ''Emily's Reason's Why Not'', which was picked up and aired in 2006. In 2010, she appeared on an episode of ''

Two and a Half Men ''Two and a Half Men'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS for twelve seasons from September 22, 2003, to February 19, 2015. Originally starring Charlie Sheen in the lead role alongside Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones, the ...

''. She currently is an anchor for

Si TV NuvoTV (formerly known as Sí TV) was an American cable television, cable television network. It was launched on February 25, 2004, and catered to the Latino community with exclusively English-language programming. It ended operations on Septembe ...

and E! News. Ortiz was "One of the Top 25 Latinas of 2006" from Maxim en Español. For three seasons, Ortiz portrayed the role of Raquel Saldana in '' Hit the Floor'', a scripted VH1 series that premiered May 2013. In August 2019,

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

announced the premiere date for their new live-action comedy series '' Gabby Duran and the Unsittables'' with Ortiz set to star as Dina Duran. Ahead of the series premiere in October 2019, the show received an early season 2 renewal from Disney Channel.

Personal life

Ortiz currently lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. She enjoys reading, hiking, decorating, and writing.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Official website''South of Nowhere'' Cast Profile
*
Valery Ortiz
as Raquel Saldana on VH1's

Hit the Floor (TV series) ''Hit the Floor'', originally titled ''Bounce'', is an American sports drama television series that debuted on VH1 on May 27, 2013. Created by James LaRosa, the series chronicles the off-the-court drama surrounding the Los Angeles Devil Girls, t ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ortiz, Valery 1984 births Living people People from San Juan, Puerto Rico Actresses from Orlando, Florida 21st-century Puerto Rican actresses Puerto Rican film actresses Puerto Rican television actresses Puerto Rican dancers Singers from Orlando, Florida University of Central Florida alumni Dr. Phillips High School alumni