José Luis Anaya

Born in Mexico City and raised in Cuernavaca, Morelos, José Luis Anaya is an award-winning Actor, Film Director & Screenwriter. Wanting to become a film actor, initially trained at the stage and studied at drama school CasAzul Argos in 2009, while professionally acting onstage, followed by a BA degree in Communications with a Filmmaking concentration at Universidad Iberoamericana, during the time he participated acting in several short films and student films, including TV productions by TV Azteca network in guest roles. His love for film led him to pursue a Master's degree in Film Studies at Casa Lamm University, graduating in 2016 and studied briefly Film Directing at Facultad de Cine film school. As an actor, he also took classes at Stella Adler Academy of Acting and with Ivana Chubbuck in Los Angeles, also Meisner Technique classes in Mexico City and screenwriting workshops, and Directing Actors workshops with former Hollywood director Luis Mandoki. After several odd jobs, including as 1st Assistant Director in a couple feature length films, still photographer, videographer, editor, acting teacher, digital media content creator and researcher for TV ads & commercials, hard work paid off and completed his first fiction short films as a Director. First "Damián", originally his undergrad thesis film, which World Premiered at Mexico's Feratum International Fantastic Film Festival and spanned over a year and half in more than 70 film festival selections & screenings, winning Best International Horror Film at Horror Films in Hotlanta, Best Horror/Thriller at UK's Harrogate Film Festival, 12 awards at the Southern Shorts Awards and the nomination for Best International Director at Oregon Scream Week Horror Film Fest, among many, and was part of 2019's Cannes Film Fest's Short Film Corner. Horror Society magazine called short film "Damian" as "a short film beast among peasants" and Hollywood actress Bonnie Aarons ("The Nun", "The Conjuring 2" and "Mulholland Dr.") hailed it as a "very creepy, very disturbing" film. His follow-up "Lourdes' Choice", also originally his Master's thesis project, a dark magical realism dramatic short film, World Premiered at Los Angeles' World Premiere Film Awards Film Festival becoming the big winner sweeping 9 awards including Best of Show, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, named Finalist for Best Fantasy at Oregon Short Film Festival and nominated for Best Fiction Short Film of the year at Aladerri International Film Festival. Creating his own material as a multi-hyphenate artist, he's starting to make micro-short audiovisual content for digital media, starting with "TOC TOC", a self-directed 2-man crew made micro-horror film that just won him Best Director at Creepy Tree Film Festival and his first Best Actor award at Hollywood Blood Horror Festival. He's an business partner of production company Foro Veintidos, co-wrote the TV show "Impetus", and has written 2 feature length screenplays, including "Alter", and now develops the feature length version of "Damian", a wild comedy screenplay and an action webisodes series. He also works directing professional music videos and teaches intensive acting seminars for newcoming and established actors. Fluent in English, he's also studies a Screenwriting postgraduate degree at Facultad de Cine film school.