Art by Alan Lopez for Remezcla
With the Academy Awards set to take place on March 4, people aren’t just excited to see who wins, but who will turn up to present an award. So far at least seven Latino actors are set to drop in to open up an envelope and we have them all here for you to see! It’s nice to see a mix of US-born Latinos as well as Latin Americans, since only those born abroad were nominated this year. We’ll keep updating this list as more names are announced.
Chilean trans actress Daniela Vega was revealed in the first wave of Oscar presenters. Vega has taken the world by storm for her portrayal of a woman swept up in emotion after the death of her older boyfriend in Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman. Though Vega wasn’t nominated for her portrayal the film itself is one of five in contention for Best Foreign Language Film. Vega will make history at this year’s ceremony as the first trans woman to present an Academy Award.
Forever dubbed “the internet’s boyfriend,” Guatemalan actor Oscar Isaac will be on hand. He was most recently seen in Alex Garland’s sci-fi epic Annihilation, alongside fellow Latina Oscar presenter, Gina Rodriguez. Annihilation is Isaac’s second film in the last few months after his return to the pilot seat as Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Last Jedi in December. Isaac will next be seen in the historical actioner Operation Finale and the romantic drama Life Itself in September. He’s also being tapped to finally star as Gomez Addams in an animated take on The Addams Family.
With an Academy Awards ceremony honoring this year’s music it has to include our favorite Nuyorican music man, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Inching ever closer to an EGOT Miranda has received a Grammy and a Tony for his Broadway shows In the Heights and Hamilton. Last year he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song for “How Far I’ll Go” from Disney’s Moana. This year he’ll be starring as a dancing lamplighter in the Mary Poppins sequel, Mary Poppins Returns, out December 25th.
The Oscars is about honoring legends and there isn’t a living legend better than Rita Moreno! The Puerto Rican Moreno is one of the few members of the EGOT club (winning an Emmy, Golden Globe, Oscar and Tony), as well as the first Latina to ever win an Academy Award for her role as Anita in 1961’s West Side Story. With a career spanning six decades and over 150 credits Moreno isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. She recently wrapped up the second season of the fantastic TV series One Day at a Time on Netflix, playing Justina Machado’s loving mother Lydia.
Out to support her Oscar-nominated animated film Ferdinand, film and TV star Gina Rodriguez will be presenting. Rodriguez is quickly rising up the Hollywood ranks. Last year she lent her voice to The Star – itself nominated for a Golden Globe – and the aforementioned Ferdinand, which is nominated for Best Animated Feature. Rodriguez can currently be seen kicking ass in the female-focused Annihilation, as well as on TV screens as the darling Jane Villanueva in The CW’s Jane the Virgin. Her long gestating remake of Miss Bala is set to come out sometime this year, and she’ll trot the globe as Carmen Sandiego in 2019.
Mexican actor-producer-writer Eugenio Derbez was recently announced as a presenter, starting the ball rolling in the months leading up to his remake of the 1987 comedy Overboard. Derbez came to prominence with stateside with the 2013 family comedy Instructions Not Included and wowed box office pundits with the success of his film How to Be a Latin Lover in 2017. Alongside the remake of Overboard, which Derbez is also producing, he’ll star in the Disney reimagining of The Nutcracker, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. He has also been announced as the new voice of cartoon character Speedy Gonzalez.
Eiza Gonzalez caught audiences’ eye as the sultry, gun-toting Darling in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, itself nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Film Editing. The Mexican-born Gonzalez played the villainous Santanico Pandemonium in the television adaptation of Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk till Dawn before breaking onto the scene in Baby Driver. She’ll next be featured in the TV series God’s Equation and the Rodriguez directed sci-fi actioner Alita: Battle Angel.
This is something so special it’s worthy of its own category. Disney and Pixar’s Dia de Muertos-set Coco is the current frontrunner for both Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. Since the latter involves a live performance it gives audiences the opportunity to weep once again at “Remember Me,” the heartfelt tribute to family members loved and lost. Set to perform the song is one of Coco’s leads, actor Gael Garcia-Bernal, alongside performers Miguel and Natalia Lafourcade. Have some tissues on-hand!