April Ortiz

APRIL ORTIZ (Betty Still Smoking) This is April’s Lyric Theatre debut! April’s ancestors are from the Tigua tribe. Originally from New Mexico, relocated to the El Paso area after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. As the oldest community in the state of Texas, the Tigua of Isleta del Sur Pueblo were finally recognized as a Native American tribe and sovereign nation in the late 1960s. In 1895 when April’s grandmother was born, her scalp would have brought a bounty from the government, so her family hid her amongst the Mexican people to ensure her survival.

REGIONAL THEATRE: In The Heights, Theatre Under The Stars and Pittsburgh CLO; Between 2 Knees, Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Sunsets and Margaritas and Barrio Babies, Denver Center; Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella, Yale Rep; Bright Ideas, Laguna Playhouse; Touchtones, Arden Theatre. BROADWAY: In The Heights, Richard Rodgers Theatre. NATIONAL TOURS: In The Heights; Cats, La Cage Aux Folles. OFF BROADWAY: Tio Pepe/Somewhere, Public Theatre; The View Upstairs, Culture Project, Transformations, HomeSpace, A Woman’s Work, Flatiron Playhouse. FILM: Father Of The Bride I&II, The Majestic, Frame Of
Mind. TELEVISION: Uncoupled, Fosse/Verdon, The Golden Girls, Elementary, Instinct; Braindead, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Everybody Loves Raymond, Law and Order: CI, Coach; Empty Nest, Mad About You.