Elizabeth Peña (born September 23, 1959 ) is an American actress.
Peña was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, daughter of Estella Margarita (née Toirac), an arts administrator and producer, and Mario Peña, a Cuban-born actor, writer, and director who co-founded the Latin American Theatre Ensemble. Peña graduated from New York's famed High School of Performing Arts in 1977. Her classmates include Ving Rhames (with whom she would later co-star in Jacob's Ladder) and Esai Morales (with whom she would later co-star in La Bamba).
Peña has appeared in movies such as La Bamba, Lone Star, Vibes and Rush Hour. She recently starred in Showtime's Resurrection Blvd. as Tia Bibi Corrades and voiced the character Mirage in Pixar's animated film The Incredibles. She guest stars in the 18th episode of Numb3rs season two as Sonya Benavides.
Peña also starred in the television series I Married Dora, a sitcom best known for lasting less than three months in 1987.
Her love for the arts came naturally as her father was a well-known playwright, actor, director and novelist, so its not hard to understand that by the time she was eight, Cuban-American Elizabeth Pena already had designs to become an actress. Born in New Jersey and raised in New York, her parents, who opened off-Broadway's Latin American Theatre Ensemble, were more than encouraging. Elizabeth attended NY's High School of the Performing Arts and found occasional work in repertory theatre and in television commercials. Her film debut in the independent Spanish-speaking feature El Super (1979) started her on a long line of feisty, rebellious characters that showed plenty of attitude. During the early 80s she played everything from a knife-threatening waitress to a disco queen as she waited for her big break. That big break came in the form of the hugely successful comedy film Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986) co-starring Bette Midler, Richard Dreyfuss and Nick Nolte, in which she stole many scenes as the sultry, politically-minded maid Carmen who lusts for Nolte. This propelled her to move to Los Angeles where she continued to spice up both the big and small screen, including the part of Ritchie Valens' stepsister-in-law in the well-received biopic La Bamba (1987). Honors also came by Elizabeth's way when she received the Independent Spirit and Bravo awards for the film Lone Star (1996) and the ALMA Award for Tortilla Soup (2001). On TV she hasn't found the one series role to thrust her front and center. Co-starring roles in "Tough Cookies," "I Married Dora" and "Shannon's Deal" were short-lived. She is married and has two children,
