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Salma Hayek Pinault, Chair

Academy Award Nominee Salma Hayek Pinault has proven herself as a prolific actress, producer, and director, in both film and television. She received an Academy Award Nomination, a Golden Globe Nomination, a SAG Nomination, and a BAFTA Nomination for Best Actress for the title role in Julie Taymor’s Frida.

Hayek was most recently seen in Grown Ups, a Columbia Pictures comedy about five best friends from high school who reunite 30 years later on a Fourth of July weekend. The film also starred Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Chris Rock. Hayek will also be lending her voice in DreamWorks’ Puss In Boots, a prequel of sorts to Shrek 2, as Antonio Banderas’ love interest “Kitty.” The film is scheduled for release in 2012.

On television, she was last seen guest starring on NBC’s critically acclaimed show 30 Rock, Hayek won an Emmy for her directorial debut, The Maldonado Miracle, which she also produced. The film, which starred Peter Fonda, Mare Winningham, and Ruben Blades, premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and later aired on Showtime. Her last directorial project was a music video for Prince’s single “Te Amo Corazon,” which premiered in January 2006.

Hayek’s film credits include: Paul Weitz’s The Vampire’s Assistant released by Universal, Todd Robinson’s Lonely Hearts opposite John Travolta and James Gandolfini, Robert Towne’s Ask the Dust, alongside Colin Farrell and Idina Menzel, Luc Besson’s Bandidas opposite Penelope Cruz, Brett Ratner’s After the Sunset, Robert Rodriguez’s Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Mike Figgis’ Hotel and Timecode, Kevin Smith’s Dogma, the comedy Fools Rush In, From Dusk Till Dawn directed by Robert Rodriquez and written by Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado

Since 2006, Hayek and her producing partner Jose Tamez have been developing, producing and acquiring mainstream projects that either draw on Latin themes or feature Latin talent, both in front of and behind the camera for ABC Studios. She currently serves as the Executive Producer on ABC’s award-winning program Ugly Betty, starring America Ferrera, based on the enormously successful Colombian series Yo Soy Betty, La Fea. In 2001, she starred in and co-produced Showtime’s, In the Time of the Butterflies, for which she was nominated for a Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Award. Also produced by Hayek’s Ventanarosa Productions was the Mexican feature, No One Writes to the Colonel, directed by Arturo Ripstein, and based on the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. No One Writes to the Colonel was selected for official competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.

Born and raised in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, Hayek studied International Relations in college in Mexico. Her additional Mexican credits include, Midaq Alley, based on a novel by Nobel Prize winner, Naguib Mafouz.

Noted for her acting career, Hayek has also dedicated much of her time to social activism. Hayek served as spokesperson for the Pampers/UNICEF partnership worldwide to help stop the spread of life-threatening maternal and neonatal tetanus. She serves as the spokesperson for the Avon Foundation’s Speak Out Against Domestic Violence program, which focuses on domestic violence education, awareness and prevention, as well as support for victims. In 2005, she spoke in front the US Senate, encouraging its members to extend the Violence Against Women Act. In January 2006, the legislation was passed, ensuring that 3.9 billion dollars will be allocated to thousands of domestic violence crisis and intervention agencies throughout the US. In April of 2005, Hayek visited the Arctic Circle for the celebration of Earth Day, in an effort to bring attention to the dangers that global warming is putting on the lives of Inuit people and the rest of the world. In November 2005, she served as co-host, alongside Julianne Moore, at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, which honored Nobel laureate Mohamed el-Baradei and the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. She was also part of the One campaign that singer and activist Bono created, as well as a member of Global Green, and Youth Aids. 

Also in 2006, Hayek was honored at the NDVH Vital Link Awards Ceremony in Washington, DC as the Voices for Change award recipient.