Natalia Reyes

From Music Television to the Guajira Desert

Natalia Reyes didn't get here by luck or a casting algorithm. In 2002 she competed on the show Popstars Colombia, and that TV experience was her first real contact with the camera. But music was not the final goal of her career. She moved to New York to study at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute because she needed a solid technical foundation before facing the professional industry.

In 2015, she starred in Lady, la vendedora de rosas. That TV series drew massive audiences across Latin America and gave her a level of visibility she had never experienced before. It was her training ground for what came next.

The international industry truly discovered her in 2018 with Birds of Passage. Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego cast her as Zaida in a story about the origins of drug trafficking in the Wayuu community. It was a raw and demanding film. Shooting in the desert required an extreme physical effort and forced her to learn an indigenous language and understand unfamiliar cultural codes. That performance opened the doors of major studios in Los Angeles without her having to go through the supporting roles she was always offered.

Then James Cameron came along.

The Leap to 180 Million Dollars

In 2019, the world saw her face on the posters for Terminator: Dark Fate. She played Dani Ramos. She shared the screen with Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger under the direction of Tim Miller. The film's budget exceeded 180 million dollars. It was a project of immense scale that required her to relocate and enter the world of action blockbusters, with months of physical training beforehand.

But Natalia Reyes never got stuck in the world of explosions, chases and visual effects.

In the following years she returned to more intimate, personal projects. In 2022 she starred in Petit Mal, a film exploring polyamorous relationships, directed by Ruth Caudeli. It is a cinema of silences and glances that has nothing to do with Hollywood. In 2023 she premiered Tomorrow Before After, a post-apocalyptic film in which she is practically the only presence on screen for its entire runtime. She shot this story amid the solitude of the Colombian mountains with a small crew.

Production is her next logical step.

Directing and Management in 2023

Her work off the set has gained real weight in the Latin film industry. In 2023, she took over as president of the Colombian Academy of Film Arts and Sciences. This is no ceremonial post (far from it). She oversees funding and promotion policies and represents her country at international awards. She manages budgets and strategic decisions that directly affect the financing of new films in the region.

Through her own production company, she seeks stories that move away from the usual narratives about violence. In 2024, she got involved in projects that prioritize a female perspective and the development of original screenplays. She still lives in Cartagena de Indias because she prefers the calm of the Caribbean to the frantic pace of California. Before signing any contract, she reads the fine print on international distribution.

In 2025, her schedule includes collaborations with European directors interested in her bilingual profile and her ability to hold long close-ups. Filming of her next international movie is set for the last quarter of 2026 on locations spread across Spain and Morocco.

The global box office of her run in the Terminator franchise came to 261 million dollars.