CHRONOLOGY
2009 to PRESENT
2021
* Plays "Maya" in Nuanse Entertainment's "Anthology" web series, available at BlackOakTV.
2020
* Obtains an MFA in Movement Directing and Teaching from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Her thesis on movement improvisation with space and objects for actors was one of the few marked with a distinction in the department's history.
2018
* Appears in Marvel's "Daredevil," season 3, on Netflix as "Betsy Beatty" alongside Charlie Cox and Matt Gerald.
2016
* Students at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN, stage her play "Silence Is Health," directed by Beliza Torres-Narváez.
* Appears in season 4 of the Netflix's series "House of Cards" alongside Robin Wright (episode director) and Ellen Burstyn.
2014
* Appears in the TV series "Blue Bloods."
* Opens her solo play "Womankind" at La MaMa E.T.C. in NYC to rave reviews.
* Alongside Miguel Belmonte, she creates the one-act play "Vertigo," which opened at a private event in Brooklyn in January 2014.
2012
* Writes and begins production for her fourth solo show, "Womankind."
* The movie "Babygirl," by Macdara Vallely, opens in the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.
2011
* "Gun Hill Road" opens to sold-out houses at Sundance, among other international festivals, and in select theaters in New York City.
* "The Orphans" - introducing Peruvian actor Renzo Ampuero - reopens at the Connelly Theater in NYC in June at the 5th Teatro StageFest.
* "The Orphans" plays in São Paulo, Brazil, to full houses as part of the first collaboration between StageFest and SESC Brazil.
* Casiano and Daniel Irizarry are nominated for Outstanding Choreography for "The Orphans" at the 2011 NY Innovative Theater Awards.
2010
* Her play "The Orphans," a collaboration with actor/director Daniel Irizarry, premieres to rave reviews at La MaMa E.T.C. in December.
* Shoots the movie "Gun Hill Road" alongside Esaí Morales, Judy Reyes, Robin De Jesús and Miriam Colón, and directed by Rashaad Ernesto Green, which premiered at Sundance in January 2011.
* Appears as talk show host "Claudia" in the film "Babygirl" by Macdara Vallely.
* Stars in the short film "Happy Birthday" by Noel Calloway, available HERE.
* Her one-woman show "ROOTLESS: La No-Nostalgia" plays to sold out houses at the 8vo Festival Internacional de Cabaret
in Mexico City in July. Read La Jornada article
* In May, "ROOTLESS: La No-Nostalgia" plays at P.S.122 as part of the 7th Annual soloNOVA Arts Festival, and is nominated for a New York InnovativeTheater Award 2010 as Outstanding Musical.
Photo by Jonathan Flórez.
2002 to 2009
2009
* The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at NYU invites "Rootless" to its 7th Encuentro, in Bogota, Colombia.
* "Rootless" opens at CUNY's John Jay College, sponsored by the Department of Latina/o and Latin American Studies and of several NYC pro-immigrant non-profits.
* Appears on the TV show "Law and Order."
2008
* Premieres her third one-woman show entitled "Rootless: La No-Nostalgia" at chashama 42nd Street in Manhattan.
* Debuts as the lead vocalist of the Latin American folk music band "Trova York."
2007
* Appears on the world premiere of Charles Mee's "Fire Island" with 3-Legged Dog.
* Collaborates with Knife, Inc. at HERE Arts Center on the play "ophelia3."
2006
* Stars in the shorts "Trigger Effect" (Crucible Films), "That's Good, That's Enough"
(FemmeMaker Prods.) and "Mojado" (CT Pictures, SBIFF ‘08.)
* Writes, directs and premieres her immersive/site-specific play "Silence Is Health / Silencio es Salud" for La Criatura Theater Company.
2005
* Nominated for a New York Latin ACE award as Best Comedy Actress for her lead performance in Lope de Vega's "The Dog in the Manger" at Spanish Repertory Theater, where she also starred in "Blood Wedding," "The House of Bernarda Alba" and "Bad Blood," among other plays.
* Plays the lead role in "Medea" by Ágora Teatro, staged at the San Felipe del Morro Fort in San Juan.
* Co-founds La Criatura Theater Company.
2004
* "Colonia 2007" is invited to participate in HERE Arts Center's The American Living Room Festival in New York.
2003
"¿Qué me trajiste?: Cabaret Boricua" opens in New York at HERE Arts Center.
* Stars in the short film "The Love Bite" by Macdara Vallely (Best Irish Short, Galway Film Fleadth ’04, Ireland.)
* Collaborates with The Flying Machine at Public Theater in their production of Louis-Férdinand Celine's "Journey to the End of the Night."
2002
* Debuts “off-Broadway” as understudy of the lead in "La Lupe: My Life, My Destiny" at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater .
* Collaborates with Josh Fox's International WOW Company in "The Bomb."
Photo by Flor Blake.
1996 to 2001
2001
* With Colectivo C-4, presentes "Day One" at the 10th Havana International Theater Festival and opens "Luz Negra," by Álvaro Menén Desleal, in Puerto Rico.
* Goes on tour with "¿Qué me trajiste?" and "Colonia 2007" to Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina.
2000
* The National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture
fund her second solo show, "Colonia 2007 o el cabaret de los días terribles."
* "¿Qué me trajiste?" opens at Havana's National Theater Café-Teatro Delirio Habanero.
1999
* Writes, directs and premieres her first one-woman show "¿Qué me trajiste?".
1998
* Stars in "Waiting for Godot," directed by Rosa Luisa Márquez, at the Encuentro Ayacucho 98
and the International Theater Festival in Lima, Peru.
* Relocates to Quito, Ecuador, to study with theater group Malayerba.
1997
* Stars in Badal Sircar's "Procession," directed by Rosa Luisa Márquez.
1996
* Co-founds experimental theater troupe Colectivo C-4 and they premiere Jorge Díaz's "Día Uno, Eve of the Beheading."
* Collaborates in the cast of "Octopuses Garden," directed by Rosa Luisa Márquez.
Photo by Thomas Michael.
***
Karina Casiano was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and graduated from the University of Puerto Rico.
Through the years, she has trained with Rosa Luisa Márquez, Richard Crawford, Movement Theater Studio, Gibney Dance, Norman Taylor, Penny Templeton Studio, Austin Pendleton, Paul Gemignani, Paul Ford, Joanna Merlin, Carolann Page, Susan Baum, Atlantic Theater Company, Heather Hammond, Body and Pole, Michael Chekhov Studio, NY Goofs, The Second City, Upright Citizens Brigade,Yuyachkani, Viveca Vázquez, Petra Bravo, Malayerba, and many more.