Join us for a 90-minute Career Retrospective with Salma Hayek. Prior to the Q&A we will screen her film, BEATRIZ AT DINNER.
Moderated by Stacey Wilson Hunt, New York Magazine.
GUEST BIO
SALMA HAYEK is an Academy Award® nominee who has proven herself as a prolific actress, producer and director, in both film and television. She was nominated for an Oscar®, a Golden Globe®, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a BAFTA for her leading role in Julie Taymor’s Frida, about the fascinating life of artist Frida Kahlo.
More recently, Hayek appeared in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful, alongside Pierce Brosnan and Jessica Alba, and voiced Teresa Taco in Seth Rogen’s animated comedy Sausage Party.
Hayek can be seen starring in the comedy How to Be a Latin Lover, opposite Eugenio Derbez, Rob Lowe and Kristen Bell. Other notable upcoming projects include The Hitman’s Bodyguard, alongside Ryan Reynolds, and Drunk Parents, with Alec Baldwin.
Previously, Hayek devoted herself to a passion project as a producer and actor for Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (2014), an animated feature inspired by the book of the same name by the beloved Lebanese artist and poet. She voices a character in the film alongside other talent such as Liam Neeson, John Krasinski, Quvenzhané Wallis and her Frida co-star Alfred Molina. She then starred in Tale of Tales, from acclaimed Italian director Matteo Garrone. The film premiered at Cannes in 2015 to what many say is the longest standing ovation in the festival’s history.
Other film credits include Alex de la Iglesia’s As Luck Would Have It, Mathieu Demy’s Americano, the Academy Award-nominated animated film Puss in Boots, Paul Weitz’s Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, Todd Robinson’s Lonely Hearts, Robert Towne’s Ask the Dust, Bandidas, penned by Luc Besson, Brett Ratner’s After the Sunset, Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Mike Figgis’ Hotel and Timecode, Kevin Smith’s Dogma and Oliver Stone’s Savages. She was also seen in Here Comes the Boom, Grown-Ups and Grown-Ups 2, all opposite Kevin James.
On television, Hayek turned in a notable guest-starring arc on NBC’s critically acclaimed comedy "30 Rock." She won an Emmy® for her directorial debut "The Maldonado Miracle," which she also produced. The film, which starred Peter Fonda, Mare Winningham and Rubén Blades, premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and later aired on Showtime. She has also directed music videos for both Prince and Jada Pinkett Smith.
Also a creative force behind the camera, Hayek served as executive producer on ABC’s award-winning comedy "Ugly Betty," starring America Ferrera. In 2001 she starred in and co-produced Showtime’s "In the Time of the Butterflies," for which she was nominated for a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award. Also produced by Hayek’s Ventanarosa Productions was the Mexican feature No One Writes to the Colonel, directed by Arturo Ripstein and based on the novel by Gabriel García Márquez. The film was selected for official competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.
Hayek has dedicated much of her free time to social activism. She served as spokesperson for the worldwide Pampers/UNICEF partnership to help stop the spread of life-threatening maternal and neonatal tetanus. She also represented the Avon Foundation’s Speak Out Against Domestic Violence program, which focuses on education, awareness and prevention, as well as support for victims. In 2005 she spoke in front of the U.S. Senate, encouraging its members to extend the Violence Against Women Act. The legislation was passed, ensuring that funds would be allocated to thousands of domestic violence crises and intervention agencies throughout the U.S.
Also in 2005 Hayek visited the Arctic Circle for the celebration of Earth Day, in an effort to bring attention to the dangers that global warming poses to the Inuit people and the rest of the world. That same year she served as co-host, alongside Julianne Moore, at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, which honored Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei and the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. In 2013 Hayek, Beyonce and Frida Giannini co-founded Chime for Change, an organization dedicated to improving the education and welfare of women and girls around the world.
