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
Complete Filmography

The Song of Sway Lake
2019
as Marlena
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
2015
as Carla
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
2015
as Sra. Soto
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
2015
as Esther
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
2013
as Dr. Lopez
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
2013
as Dona
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
2013
as Dr. Weinette
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
2011
as Christina Rayes
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
2010
as Mrs. Castro
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
2009
as Lawyer
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
2008
as Anna Rodriguez
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
2008
as Storyteller
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
2008
as Flores
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
2007
as Esperanza
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
2007
as Agent Linda Perez
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
2007
as Rosa Maria
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
2007
as Isabel Parades
The lives of three lonely strangers intersect while commuting on New York's 1 and 9 subway lines.

Sueno
2005
as Mirabela
A Mexican immigrant new to Los Angeles enters into a love triangle with two very different women.

Keep Your Distance
2005
as Holly
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
2005
as Gale
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
2005
as Margaret
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
2005
as Lolita
Three generations of women in a Mexican American family experience sexual awakenings over the course of a summer.

The Incredibles
2004
as Mirage (voice)
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
2004
as Clara Harris
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
2004
as Theresa Shoe
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
2004
as Paran Dul (voice)
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
2002
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
2002
as Ms. Tate
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
2001
as Midwife (as Elizabeth Pena)
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
2001
as Connie
A young couple embark on a cross-country journey, only to run into trouble at the Texas/Mexico border.

Things Behind the Sun
2001
as Carmen
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
2001
as Leticia Narnjo
A Mexican-American master chef and father to three daughters has lost his taste for food but not for life.

Seven Girlfriends
2000
as Martha
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
1999
as Maria Rodriguez
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
1998
as Rosario Ames
Fact-based story about a 90's espionage case that was chronicled as the worst case of espionage in US history

Strangeland
1998
as Toni Gage
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
1998
as Johnson
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
1998
as Zeena
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
1997
as Christina Fernandez
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
1997
as Det. Luisa Rojas
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
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
1996
as Pilar
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
1995
as Ellen Fields
Aliens crashland near a small desert town, strewing odd bluish-glowing rocks throughout the area. Townfolk notice something is amiss when temperatures...

The Invaders
1995
as Ellen Garza
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
1995
as Kate Haley
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
1994
as Carmen
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
1994
as Lisa
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
1994
as Viv Saunders
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
1992
as Rosa
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
1992
as Flo Martin
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'
1990
as Self
An overview of the making of the film Jacob's Ladder (1990).

Jacob's Ladder
1990
as Jezzie
After returning home from the Vietnam War, veteran Jacob Singer struggles to maintain his sanity. Plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks, Singer rap...

Blue Steel
1990
as Tracy Perez
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
1989
as Lucy Acosta
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
1988
as Consuelo
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
1987
as Marisa Esteval
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
1987
as Rosie Morales
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
1986
as Carmen
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
Salsa singer screws over everybody on his way to the top; when his latest record flops, his career starts doing downhill.

They All Laughed
1981
as Rita
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
1980
as Disco Hostess
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
1979
as Aurelita
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...