Actor. Filmmaker
Karina Noelle Castillo is an actor, producer, director and entrepreneur from Los Angeles, CA with 18 years of hands on experience in film/ television and theatre production, and decade of creative direction, graphic design, and social media management. She is an alumna of Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and California Institute of the Arts where she studied as a Theatre Major. Her film and television acting credits include NCIS, The Good Doctor, Grey's Anatomy, L.A.'s Finest, Better Things, and Promised Land as well as feature films Holidays and Missing, the highly anticipated sequel to independent smash hit Searching starring John Cho.
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Karina worked as an assistant editor at boutique production company Lodger Films on web series Jerk All Stars, a Jerking dance competition hosted on MySpace and sponsored by Sprite. She has since gone on to edit projects seen on channels such as ABC, FYI, FOX, MeTV and Amazon.
In 2014 Karina served as the honorary Quinceanera for Hollywood Forever Cemetery's 15 year anniversary of its famed Dia De Los Muertos celebration. The event was attended by over 40,000 people and is the largest Day of the Dead event in Los Angeles. ​In more recent years she has moved on to work with their production team in coordinating the event, focusing on vendor outreach and marketing.
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Karina is the co-founder and CEO of Courtyard Entertainment, LLC, a production company that specializes in music videos, short films, acting services and consulting for company and celebrity branding. Focusing on a holistic approach to marketing, Karina works with high profile clients to streamline their online presence and public image.
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In 2019 Karina and cofounder Stevie Rae Dominguez launched their Los Angeles based arts collective The Heartbreak Artists. As a subsidiary of Courtyard Entertainment, The Heartbreak Artists seeks to continue its parent company's goal of highlighting life's bitter-sweetness by supporting local artists in their quest to find beauty in chaos. Members include poets, cartoonists, painters, filmmakers, photographers, and more. Their yearly art gallery and festival, Heart Beats, is a celebration of Heartbreak in all forms and brings together Los Angeles artists of all mediums to create original work about their personal journeys of Love and Loss.
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Karina is the creator of Humana/Xicana, a clothing line focused on connecting to her indigenous roots by bringing the iconography of Pre-Columbian civilizations into the modern age. Her collection includes the imagery of the Aztec Gods, traditional foods of the Mexican region, and inspiration from the various codices throughout history.
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Karina is the current Artistic Director of Thymele Arts, an arts incubator in East Hollywood with over 8,000 square feet of rehearsal and performance spaces. At the arts center Karina is responsible for producing and curating The Salon, an artist showcase with new presenters sharing their artistic journeys, hopes and fears, and inspirations in Q&A sessions. In her position she is responsible for identifying and executing an artistic brand and vision for the whole of the company including color palettes, iconography, photography, typography, style guides, etc.
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Karina is the recipient of the Mexican-American Cultural Education Foundation (MACEF) Filmmaker Production Grant and was a Second Rounder in ScreenCraft Film Fund Grant. Her script The Wall, is currently in the top 19% of all Short Thriller projects on Coverfly.