Martha Higareda

The rise of a new face

Martha Higareda was 14 years old when she convinced her parents to move from Tabasco to the Mexican capital. It was 1997. She studied communications by day and theater by night while looking for an opportunity in the city's casting calls. In 2002, she landed the role of Renata in Amar te duele, and her life changed overnight.

The film worked because it portrayed a raw reality of social class that young audiences devoured in theaters. But success didn't make her complacent. Before turning twenty, she already knew that constant work was the only way to survive in an industry that forgets fast. And so she began taking on one project after another in television and film without a break.

That was just the beginning.

In 2007, she appeared in Niñas mal, and a year later made the leap to the American market with Street Kings. In that film, she shared the screen with Keanu Reeves and Hugh Laurie. It was her first real exposure to Hollywood budgets and the dynamics of major studios. But Higareda didn't want to be just a supporting actress in other people's productions.

The business behind the camera

In 2014, she decided she wanted to call the shots on her own projects. She wrote the screenplay for Cásese quien pueda and handled the film's full production. The movie drew more than 4 million viewers in Mexican movie theaters. And the numbers proved her right again shortly after.

In 2016, she produced and starred in No manches, Frida. It was a risky bet on commercial comedy that ended up raking in millions both in her home country and in the United States. She understood before many of her peers that the Hispanic market in North America was an untapped gold mine. So she repeated the formula with a sequel in 2019.

Money attracts money.

In 2018, Netflix chose her for a key role in the science fiction series Altered Carbon. She played detective Kristin Ortega. The shoot in Vancouver was physically demanding and required months of martial arts training. The series had a budget of 7 million dollars per episode during its first season.

Despite the technical demands abroad, she never neglected her work as a screenwriter in Spanish. In 2022, she worked on developing new stories that sought to move away from the usual themes of Mexican auteur cinema. She has always maintained that film can also be pure, hard-hitting entertainment.

The expansion of the format

In 2020, she launched the podcast De todo un mucho with host Yordi Rosado. The project became a download phenomenon on digital platforms. But this side of her career as a commentator also brought criticism and mockery on social media over her personal anecdotes. She chose to ignore the noise and keep producing content for her loyal audience.

In 2023, she premiered Queens of Escape on a global streaming platform. She wrote the screenplay and served as executive producer to ensure full creative control over the work. The film reached the number one spot in top viewing charts in more than 20 countries during its launch week.

The production model for her films usually locks in distribution deals before filming begins. In 2024, her strategy focuses on creating content for hybrid markets between Mexico and Los Angeles. The average budget of her recent productions under the Neverending Media label is around $3 million.