Elizabeth Peña

Elizabeth Peña

1959-09-23 Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA 62 Credits

Biography

Elizabeth Maria Peña (September 23, 1959 – October 14, 2014) was an American actress, and the daughter of a theater-company co-founder, who has also compiled experience as a television director in her own right. Peña was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, daughter of Estella Margarita (née Toirac), an arts administrator and producer, and Mario Peña, the Cuban-born actor, writer, and director who jointly founded the Latin American Theatre Ensemble. It is unknown whether Peña was named after the town ...

Known For

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Complete Filmography

The Song of Sway Lake

The Song of Sway Lake

2019

as Marlena

5.1
Acting

In the wake of his father’s suicide, young record collector Ollie Sway returns to the family lake house with his friend Nikolai in tow to lay claim to...

Grandma

Grandma

2015

as Carla

6.5
Acting

Self-described misanthrope Elle Reid has her protective bubble burst when her 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage, shows up needing help. The two of them ...

Ana Maria in Novela Land

Ana Maria in Novela Land

2015

as Sra. Soto

5.0
Acting

Ana Maria is having a bad day until she magically switches places with the main character of her favorite telenovela. As she struggles to escape from ...

Girl on the Edge

Girl on the Edge

2015

as Esther

5.8
Acting

A powerful true story about the journey of a troubled teenage girl who finds healing in the most unlikely of places, and who must choose to either inv...

Plush

Plush

2013

as Dr. Lopez

5.5
Acting

A young singer/songwriter, despite being married, becomes involved with her new guitarist, who she soon discovers has a dark past and may be a danger ...

Blaze You Out

Blaze You Out

2013

as Dona

2.7
Acting

Lupe, a strong-willed aspiring DJ, and her younger sister Alicia live in the Esperanza Valley, a community that is suffocating by generations of heroi...

In the Dark

In the Dark

2013

as Dr. Weinette

5.0
Acting

Aspiring artist Ali must rebuild her life after a tragic accident kills her husband and their young child, and leaves her blind. Life in the dark prov...

The Perfect Family

The Perfect Family

2011

as Christina Rayes

4.6
Acting

Kathleen Turner stars as suburban mother and devout Catholic Eileen Cleary, who has always kept up appearances. When she runs for the Catholic Woman o...

Down for Life

Down for Life

2010

as Mrs. Castro

3.5
Acting

Based on a New York Times article depicting a single dramatic day in the life of a Latina gang leader in South Central L.A.

Mother and Child

Mother and Child

2009

as Lawyer

6.6
Acting

The lives of three women have a commonality: adoption. Karen is a physical therapist who regrets that, as a teenager, she gave up her daughter for ado...

Nothing Like the Holidays

Nothing Like the Holidays

2008

as Anna Rodriguez

6.3
Acting

It’s Christmastime and the far-flung members of the Rodriguez family are converging at their parents’ home in Chicago to celebrate the season and rejo...

A Single Woman

A Single Woman

2008

as Storyteller

7.0
Acting

A Single Woman is a distinct, lively portrait of Jeannette Rankin (the first American woman elected to Congress; also a suffragist, peace activist and...

Racing for Time

Racing for Time

2008

as Flores

5.8
Acting

Cleveland 'Stack' Stackhouse is a guard with the Texas Correctional Youth Authority who witnesses the cycle of destructive choices and racial tensions...

Love Comes Lately

Love Comes Lately

2007

as Esperanza

5.2
Acting

Though approaching his eighties, Max Kohn shows no signs of slowing down. He pursues his love life - both real and imagined - with youthful vigor, the...

Dragon Wars: D-War

Dragon Wars: D-War

2007

as Agent Linda Perez

4.5
Acting

Ethan learns he carries the spirit of a warrior who battled dragons in 16th-century Korea -- and one day he'll find a tattooed girl carrying the spiri...

Goal II: Living the Dream

Goal II: Living the Dream

2007

as Rosa Maria

6.0
Acting

Tempted away from Newcastle United to join Real Madrid, rising star Santiago Munez finds this latest change of fortune the greatest challenge yet - pe...

Adrift in Manhattan

Adrift in Manhattan

2007

as Isabel Parades

5.5
Acting

The lives of three lonely strangers intersect while commuting on New York's 1 and 9 subway lines.

Sueno

Sueno

2005

as Mirabela

4.2
Acting

A Mexican immigrant new to Los Angeles enters into a love triangle with two very different women.

Keep Your Distance

Keep Your Distance

2005

as Holly

4.4
Acting

In the perfectly normal town of Louisville, KY, there is a perfectly normal man living the perfect life. David Dailey is a man who has it all: A great...

Down in the Valley

Down in the Valley

2005

as Gale

5.9
Acting

On a trip to the beach, a teenage girl named Tobe meets a charismatic stranger named Harlan, who dresses like a cowboy and claims to be a former ranch...

Transamerica

Transamerica

2005

as Margaret

7.0
Acting

A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.

How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer

How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer

2005

as Lolita

5.4
Acting

Three generations of women in a Mexican American family experience sexual awakenings over the course of a summer.

The Incredibles

The Incredibles

2004

as Mirage (voice)

7.7
Acting

Bob Parr has given up his superhero days to log in time as an insurance adjuster and raise his three children with his formerly heroic wife in suburbi...

Suburban Madness

Suburban Madness

2004

as Clara Harris

5.0
Acting

Based on the real story of Clara Harris, the Houston, Texas dentist who made headlines in July 2002 when she killed her adulterous husband by repeated...

The Hollywood Mom's Mystery

The Hollywood Mom's Mystery

2004

as Theresa Shoe

7.5
Acting

Lucy Freers has a long-standing marriage, a nine-year old daughter, and a great family life in the suburbs of Hollywood. Great, that is, until the Hol...

Justice League: Starcrossed - The Movie

Justice League: Starcrossed - The Movie

2004

as Paran Dul (voice)

8.1
Acting

When the Thanagarians visit Earth, Hawkgirl is forced to choose between loyalty to her people and love for her friends on her adopted planet Earth.

Ten Tiny Love Stories

Ten Tiny Love Stories

2002

3.6
Acting

Rodrigo Garcia's Ten Tiny Love Stories follows the stories of ten women with very different emotional and psychological experiences across ten scripte...

Zig Zag

Zig Zag

2002

as Ms. Tate

5.8
Acting

An autistic 15-year-old boy steals money from his boss to provide rent for his abusive father, who uses the money to repay a loan shark.

Impostor

Impostor

2001

as Midwife (as Elizabeth Pena)

6.1
Acting

A top-secret government weapons designer is arrested by a clandestine government organization on suspicion of being a clone created by the hostile ali...

On the Borderline

On the Borderline

2001

as Connie

3.7
Acting

A young couple embark on a cross-country journey, only to run into trouble at the Texas/Mexico border.

Things Behind the Sun

Things Behind the Sun

2001

as Carmen

5.8
Acting

A young music journalist's dark memories are awakened when he goes to interview a female rock singer, and both are forced to confront troubling secret...

Tortilla Soup

Tortilla Soup

2001

as Leticia Narnjo

6.3
Acting

A Mexican-American master chef and father to three daughters has lost his taste for food but not for life.

Seven Girlfriends

Seven Girlfriends

2000

as Martha

4.2
Acting

Jesse is charming, romantic, and he knows how to pop the question; he just can't face marriage. So, when he and Hannah split up during the same week t...

Border Line

Border Line

1999

as Maria Rodriguez

4.0
Acting

Allison Westlin, a Los Angeles-based immigration lawyer and single mother, investigates a murder with the help of private detective Mario Sparks and I...

Aldrich Ames: Traitor Within

Aldrich Ames: Traitor Within

1998

as Rosario Ames

5.7
Acting

Fact-based story about a 90's espionage case that was chronicled as the worst case of espionage in US history

Strangeland

Strangeland

1998

as Toni Gage

5.0
Acting

A pierced and tattooed sadist, Captain Howdy, trolls the Internet for naive teens, luring them to his home to torture and defile them. When Howdy kidn...

Rush Hour

Rush Hour

1998

as Johnson

7.0
Acting

When Hong Kong Inspector Lee is summoned to Los Angeles to investigate a kidnapping, the FBI doesn't want any outside help and assigns cocky LAPD Dete...

The Pass

The Pass

1998

as Zeena

5.7
Acting

A businessman with a compulsive gambling problem which has led to his wife leaving him, travels to Reno, Nevada for some gambling therapy which takes ...

The Second Civil War

The Second Civil War

1997

as Christina Fernandez

6.1
Acting

When a planeload of Pakistani orphans are shipped to his state for permanent relocation, the governor of Idaho defies the president and closes the sta...

Contagious

Contagious

1997

as Det. Luisa Rojas

4.3
Acting

When shrimp from Mexico, tainted with Cholera, is served to people on a plane bound for LA, an outbreak ensues. A doctor sets out to find the source a...

Recon

1996

as Officer Santiago

Acting

A troubled detective enters a simulation of the last few minutes of a woman's life in order to catch a spree-killer.

Lone Star

Lone Star

1996

as Pilar

7.0
Acting

When the skeleton of his murdered predecessor is found, Sheriff Sam Deeds unearths many other long-buried secrets in his Texas border town.

It Came from Outer Space II

It Came from Outer Space II

1995

as Ellen Fields

3.1
Acting

Aliens crashland near a small desert town, strewing odd bluish-glowing rocks throughout the area. Townfolk notice something is amiss when temperatures...

The Invaders

The Invaders

1995

as Ellen Garza

4.5
Acting

Nolan Wood is a pilot who uncovers a plot to promote the ecological destruction of Earth in order to pave the way for alien colonization. Now, with th...

Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home

Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home

1995

as Kate Haley

5.9
Acting

Jesse becomes reunited with Willy three years after the whale's jump to freedom as the teenager tries to rescue the killer whale and other orcas from ...

Across the Moon

Across the Moon

1994

as Carmen

3.7
Acting

Two young women bond while living together out in the California desert to be close to their boyfriends who are serving time at the nearby state priso...

Roommates

Roommates

1994

as Lisa

4.4
Acting

The story of a macho straight and a well-educated gay man who have to share an apartment at a half-way house for aids-patients. Slowly they become fri...

Dead Funny

Dead Funny

1994

as Viv Saunders

5.0
Acting

When her practical joker boyfriend dies, a young woman recalls all the pranks he pulled as she tries to figure out who murdered him.

The Waterdance

The Waterdance

1992

as Rosa

6.1
Acting

Author Joel Garcia breaks his neck while hiking, and finds himself in a rehab center with Raymond, an exaggerating ladies man, and Bloss, a racist bik...

Fugitive Among Us

Fugitive Among Us

1992

as Flo Martin

4.2
Acting

An increasingly obsessed detective chases an escaped rapist across the Southwest and enters into a complicated relationship with one of the victims.

Building 'Jacob's Ladder'

Building 'Jacob's Ladder'

1990

as Self

2.7
Acting

An overview of the making of the film Jacob's Ladder (1990).

Jacob's Ladder

Jacob's Ladder

1990

as Jezzie

7.4
Acting

After returning home from the Vietnam War, veteran Jacob Singer struggles to maintain his sanity. Plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks, Singer rap...

Blue Steel

Blue Steel

1990

as Tracy Perez

5.8
Acting

Rookie cop Megan Turner orders a burglar to drop his gun. He whirls to shoot. Too late. Turner fires, killing him instantly. When someone lifts the as...

Shannon's Deal

Shannon's Deal

1989

as Lucy Acosta

Acting

A washed-up lawyer refuses to take a bribe and instead goes after the South American drug cartel that's trying to push those in its way. Pilot for the...

Vibes

Vibes

1988

as Consuelo

5.7
Acting

Medium Sylvia Pickel and psychometrist Nick Deezy meet at a psychic research facility in New York. Not long after, they're contacted by Harry Buscafus...

*batteries not included

*batteries not included

1987

as Marisa Esteval

6.7
Acting

In a soon to be demolished block of apartments, the residents resist the criminal methods used to force them to leave so a greedy tycoon can build his...

La Bamba

La Bamba

1987

as Rosie Morales

7.3
Acting

Los Angeles teenager Ritchie Valens becomes an overnight rock 'n' roll success in 1958, thanks to a love ballad called "Donna" that he wrote for his g...

Down and Out in Beverly Hills

Down and Out in Beverly Hills

1986

as Carmen

5.9
Acting

Beverly Hills couple Barbara and Dave Whiteman find their lives altered by the arrival of a vagrant who tries to drown himself in their swimming pool.

Crossover Dreams

1985

as Liz Garcia

5.7
Acting

Salsa singer screws over everybody on his way to the top; when his latest record flops, his career starts doing downhill.

They All Laughed

They All Laughed

1981

as Rita

5.9
Acting

New York's Odyssey Detective Agency is hired by two different clients to follow two women suspected of infidelity. Ladies' man John Russo trails Angel...

Times Square

Times Square

1980

as Disco Hostess

6.6
Acting

When a 13-year-old girl befriends a defiant antisocial child of the streets, the mismatched runaways set off to the Big Apple to find their own advent...

El Super

El Super

1979

as Aurelita

7.2
Acting

February, 1978. Roberto and Aurelia are Cuban exiles living in New York City with their 17-year-old daughter. For ten years Roberto's been the super o...