Isabella Madrigal

Biography: Isabella Madrigal is an enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians and is of Turtle Mountain Chippewa descent. In 2020, Isabella graduated from the Orange County School of the Arts Acting Conservatory. She is also a recent graduate of Harvard College where she majored in English and won the prestigious Harvard Hoopes Thesis Prize for her screenplay, Menil and Her Heart. Isabella and her sister Sophia are the Co-Directors of the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit, which produces and creates films, theater performances, and arts workshops dedicated to uplifting Indigenous voices. Isabella’s play Menil and Her Heart was a winner of the Yale Young Native Storytellers Contest in 2020 and has been featured at sixteen venues across the nation, including the United Nations and the California State Capitol in 2022 for legislators voting on issues surrounding Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. Isabella currently sits on the Youth Advisory Board for the Center for Native American Youth (where she was previously named a Champion for Change). As an actress, Isabella is best known for her roles in Menil and Heart, Rutherford Falls, and Marvel’s Echo. Isabella is also featured in the fifth issue of the bestselling series Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: Inspiring Young Changemakers and her essay on sisterhood was published in the 2023 Anthology Dear Rebel. Isabella was a 2023-2024 filmmaking recipient of the Center for Cultural Power’s Culture Bearer Award.