Rene Michelle Aranda, sometimes credited as Ren Aranda, (born December 6, 1990) is an American singer and actress, best known for ''Papa'' and ''Expelled''. She has won Best Actress (Silverstate Film Festival, 2018), Best Supporting Actress (LA Edge Film Awards, 2018) and Outstanding Performance by an Actress (

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

ACT Festival) and finished as a semifinalist in the

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

Center's

Irene Ryan Irene Ryan (born Irene Noblitt, Noblett, or Noblette; October 17, 1902 – April 26, 1973) was an American actress and comedienne who found success in vaudeville, radio, film, television, and Broadway. She is most widely known for her p ...

scholarship program.

Early life and family

Aranda was born in

Whittier, California Whittier () is a city in Southern California in Los Angeles County, part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 census figure. Whittier was incorporated i ...

, to Frank and Cheryl Aranda. She was raised in the nearby city of

Chino Hills The Chino Hills are a mountain range on the border of Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino counties, California, with a small portion in Riverside County. The Chino Hills State Park preserves open space and habitat in them. Geography The C ...

, where Aranda grew up with older brother Michael Aranda (

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

creator and musician), older sister Sara Ann Aranda and younger brother Frank Nathan Aranda. Her mother was a self produced singer/songwriter through

CD Baby CD Baby, Inc. is an online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. The CD Baby music store was shut down in March 2020 with a statement that " ...

and secretary to the college dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at

Cal State Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

until she died June 27, 2009, after a seven-year battle with breast cancer.

Career

2009–2012: Vocational training

Aranda is an alumnus of the

Los Angeles City College Los Angeles City College (LACC) is a public community college in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard on the former campus ...

Theater Academy, a three-year, audition-only acting conservatory at which

Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...

Mark Hamill Mark Richard Hamill (; born September 25, 1951) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the ''Star Wars'' film series, beginning with the original 1977 film and subsequently winning three Saturn Awards ...

Cindy Williams Cynthia Jane Williams (born August 22, 1947) is an American actress and producer, known for her role as Shirley Feeney on the television sitcom '' Happy Days'' (1975–1979), and ''Laverne & Shirley'' (1976–1982). Early life Williams was bo ...

and

Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her p ...

studied. Just before graduating in 2012, she won the national award "Outstanding Performance by an Actress" in the

Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) is a national theatre program dedicated to the improvement of collegiate theatre in the United States. Focused on the celebration of diverse and exciting theatre, KCACTF involves student ...

for her role as Willy the Space Freak in a gender-bent adaptation of

Sam Shepard Samuel Shepard Rogers III (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American actor, playwright, author, screenwriter, and director whose career spanned half a century. He won 10 Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most by any writ ...

's ''The Unseen Hand.'' For her role as "Van's Sister" in LACC's stage production of

Bert V. Royal Bert V. Royal Jr. (born October 14, 1977) is an American screenwriter, playwright, and former casting director. He is best known as the writer of the play '' Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead'', which premiered Off-Broadway in 20 ...

's '' Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead in 2010'', Aranda was nominated for the

scholarship, for which actors compete as a part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. She made it to the semi finals.

2013–2014: Early career

First invited to the set of network

Cinelatino Cinelatino is a Spanish-language movie channel based in Mexico and is owned by MVS Comunicaciones & Hemisphere Media Group (83.8% owned by InterMedia Partners). It is available throughout Latin America as well as the United States and Canada, vi ...

distributed film ''Smile Now Cry Later'' as a background actor by a fellow Theater Academy alum, Aranda was later asked to replace a crew member on a subsequent film before being locked in for two more features (''Fighting Chance'' and ''Cherry Red Kiss'') and by the fourth production (''Until the Day I Die''), she served the company Plus Entertainment as an in-house producer, appearing on screen in each title she helped produce. Aranda was featured with touring architect Alán Ramiro Manning in the

Woodbury University Woodbury University is a private university in Burbank, California, with a satellite campus in San Diego. History The school was founded in 1884 as Woodbury's Business College by its namesake, F. C. Woodbury, formerly a partner in Heald's Busin ...

Neo-Tribes Runway Event on May 1 and 2 2013, donning a Jenny Erin Davis (

Black Lightning Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character, created by writer Tony Isabella and artist Trevor Von Eeden, first appeared in ''Black Lightning'' #1 (April 1977), during ...

) design of a Bram Stoker's Dracula inspired Elisabeta (Transylvania 1462), wearing

Stila Stila Cosmetics is an American cosmetics company founded in 1994. The cosmetics line was created by makeup artist Jeanine Lobell. The name Stila (pronounced STEE-la) was derived from the Swedish word "stil," which can mean "style". Stila's officia ...

makeup.

2018: Music

In addition to her film and television career, Aranda debuted as a musical artist in 2018, releasing two pop singles a few months apart on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

, iTunes,

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbrella brand for iHear ...

and other online streaming platforms.

Youth programs and education

Aranda is a regular volunteer reader and occasional coordinator for Reading to Kids, and ran on the foundation's charity relay team in the

Los Angeles Marathon The Los Angeles Marathon (formerly known as the City of Los Angeles Marathon) is an annual running event typically held each spring in Los Angeles, California, since 1986. The marathon was inspired by the success of the 1984 Summer Olympic Ga ...

in 2016. She also participates as a volunteer actor in

Young Storytellers Young Storytellers, formerly widely known as the Young Storytellers Foundation, is an arts education non-profit operating primarily in Los Angeles. Young Storytellers currently serves elementary, middle, and high school students in Southern Califor ...

"Big Show" productions.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
Rene Michelle Aranda
on

Fandango Fandango is a lively partner dance originating from Portugal and Spain, usually in triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has ...

Rene Michelle Aranda
on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

Rene Michelle Aranda
on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

Ren Aranda
on

Ren Aranda
on iTunes
ReneAranda.com

Meet Rene Michelle Aranda of Starpark Studios" - Voyage LA Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aranda, Rene Michelle Living people 1990 births 21st-century American actresses People from Whittier, California People from Chino Hills, California Actresses from California American film actresses American television actresses American actresses of Mexican descent