RHINA VALENTIN
As a three-time award winning comedic actress, producer, emcee, dancer, and writer, "La Reina" Rhina Valentin is truly one of the performing arts' most versatile women. Ms. Valentin, a New York native and graduate of the William Esper Studio, has been dubbed "Diva" by The Village Voice and "La Diva Del Barrio" by Siempre Newspaper—and rightly so. This Jane-of-all-trades has performed at some of New York's most renowned locations, such as New World Stages, The Nuyorican Poet's Café, The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. She has been featured on HBO and in nationally syndicated commercials, written, choreographed and performed critically acclaimed pieces for dance and theater, and currently serves as the beauty, brains and the bronze behind her rapidly growing production company, La Reina Del Barrio, LLC.
ACTOR
The breadth of "La Reina's" acting career knows no bounds. From the theater to television, she is now most notably recognized for her role as the regular host of Open, which has aired live every Friday on Bronxnet Channel 67 since 2006, and as "Reina" in HBO's 2006 award winning short, Betty La Flaca. In 2006, Ms. Valentin's commanding presence graced the stage in a self-written piece for the nationally acclaimed Latinas Don't PMS, which has been performed at locations across the US including the world famous Apollo in New York and the Comedy Store in California. Her outstanding efforts have been recognized with a 2007 BRIO award for Best Actress, a 2006 UAI grant for performing arts, and a 2005 HOLA award. She has also appeared in two national commercials for Bally's and 1-800-Flowers.
PRODUCER
As founder and CEO, Ms. Valentin is currently working to make a name for her production company, La Reina Del Barrio, LLC. While working on that, she also served as a member and associate producer of "Lose Control Comedy Troop" during the Fall 2007-Spring 2008 season. She is a co-founder, producer and director of the Nuyorican Universal Theatre Society (NUTS) and the subsequent Our Times (March 2007). For her carnival-inspired La Reina's Barriolesque she employed her talents as a dancer, choreographer and writer. It initially began as an open-mic performance in 2004 at Carlito's Café and soon after materialized into a resident performance at the Nuyorican Poet's Café. It was also presented at The Viva Bronx! Festival in October 2005.
As producer and creator she has given life to such stage productions as her original piece OHMen, co-choreographed by Awilda Sterling-Duprey and accompanied by the celebrated Dominican/Haitian Band "Palo Monte." It opened in 2004 at the Baad! Ass Women Festival and was later presented at Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture (March 2005). Ms. Valentin has also received much acclaim for Metrogroove (March 2003), later presented by The Point (June 2004), Mirrors (March 2002) co-written with Sandra Rodriguez, and Diva Attack! (March 2001).
ARTS ADVOCATE Ms. Valentin's personal pride and joy is her position as Theatre Arts Director/Producer/Instructor of fifth-to eighth-grade students at CIS 166 for the Children's Aid Society since 2005. She serves on the Artistic Advisory Board for Pepatián and is an integral member of TheNetWorks.org, a networking organization for which she has hosted and emceed many networking events, including the annual Fordham B.I.D. tree-lighting and gift donation event since 2008.
www.youtube.com/lareinadelbarriopro