Biography
Justina Machado is an American actress. Born Justina Milagros Machado on 6 September 1972 in Chicago, Illinois, she began her career in Chicago theatre with the Latino Chicago Theater Company before moving to Los Angeles.
She is best known for playing Vanessa Diaz in the HBO series Six Feet Under (2001–2005). The cast, including Machado, received the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2004. Other notable television roles include Penelope Alvarez in the Netflix series One Day at a Time (2017–2020), Darci Factor in Jane the Virgin (2014–2019) and Brenda in Queen of the South (2016–2021).
Her film credits include Final Destination 2 (2003) and The Purge: Anarchy (2014). In 2025 she appeared in the Broadway musical Real Women Have Curves, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
