MARIELA GARRIGA

Mariela Garriga is an actress, producer and screenwriter. She was born and raised in Havana, Cuba, where she initially dreamt of becoming an archaeologist. She is trilingual and speaks Spanish, Italian and English fluently. Mariela holds Cuban, Italian and American citizenship.

She’s part of the principal cast in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE saga –DEAD RECKONING PART ONE and TWO under the direction of Christopher McQuarrie. And she is currently starring the Spanish TV series WHEN NOBODY SEE US, directed by Enrique Urbizu and produced by Zeta Studios and MAX.

Marielaʼs parents separated when she was two years old and for most of her childhood, she was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother. Growing up and seeing her motherʼs sacrifices to provide and ensure they had food to eat made Mariela aware of lifeʼs harshness. From an early age, she realized that if you want to achieve something, you must work hard to achieve it. She grew up in the same house as her cousin Isandra who was born with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita. Mariela considers Isandra her hero and life inspiration. When Garriga was 11 years old, her mother married and had two other children with her new husband, Jorge and Jennifer, siblings to whom Mariela is very close.

At the age of thirteen, Mariela was studying hard and participating in school tournaments which would enable her admission to the science boarding school in Cuba to study archeology.But her mother unexpectedly fell ill and was unable to walk so Mariela took responsibility for the entire family and abandoned her dreams of archaeology.

Mariela began to work when she was 13, starring in several tv commercials, music videos and advertising campaigns. Shortly after, she was offered to work as a professional dancer at the Cuban Television Ballet. They gave her six months to demonstrate her work ethic, talent and worth to join the dance company.After a long and arduous training period, she passed the test and consequently juggled her dancing career with her high school studies and family duties.

In 2009, Mariela was scouted by an Italian modeling agent. Due to the global economic crisis, she decided to start working internationally. Soon afterward, she was working as a model in Milan. The cruel reality of the fashion world was traumatic, but she was determined to make it work for her and her family. She met Stefano Mongardi, a university student from Milan who stole her heart and whom she married a few years later.

In 2010, Mariela was called to audition as a lead for an Italian feature film. Even though she had never considered becoming an actress, the audition awakened her curiosity about acting. She attended the Michael Rodgers Acting Studio in Milan, where Mariela fell in love with character interpretation and finally found the right career path. Her acting studies then took her to New York, where she trained at Terry Schreiber and The Actors Studio. Since then, sheʼs been a professional working actress balancing roles between Italy, Mexico, Spain and the United States, where she currently resides.

Mariela was recently seen in the Paramount+ series-biopic BOSÉ, where she plays the leadʼs love interest, Giannina Facio.In addition to Marielaʼs extensive work in Latam and Europe, her US work includes recurring roles in emblematic TV series such as NCIS: LA, LAW & ORDER SUV, and NCIS; and co-lead roles in features such as NIGHTMARE CINEMA and BLOODLINE, opposite Sean William Scott. In 2019, she starred in the short film SOMBRA CITY, which earned her the Best Actress Award at the Queen Palm International Film Festival.

Mariela wrote and produced E.L.I Project, a conceptual short documentary to raise awareness against environ- mental crimes and endangered animals. She also founded her own production company and already has an impressive slate of projects, including scripts that she has written herself. Her mission is to produce stories that create social impact and build bridges that transcend cultures and borders.