Karla Souza

Early life

Souza was born in Mexico City to a Chilean father and a Mexican mother. She lived in Aspen, Colorado, until she was eight years old. She studied acting at Centro de Educación Artística, the famed acting school run by Mexican media giant, Televisa, in Mexico City. She also attended acting school in France and was part of a professional theatre company that toured throughout the country. She auditioned and was selected to participate in the French reality TV show Star Academy. However, after getting an unconditional offer to join one of the best known acting schools in London (Central School of Speech and Drama), she declined the TV show opportunity and pursued her acting degree, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting in 2008. Near the end of her London studies, she received the CCP award, given to the most promising actress in London. She was also selected to go to Moscow, Russia, with Anatoly Smilianski for an acting intensive. At 22, she returned to Mexico City and began acting in television and film.

Career

In 2009, she debuted in the Mexican telenovela Verano de amor, starring singer Dulce Maria. She later starred in Mexican sitcoms Los Héroes del Norte and La Clinica. Her film roles include From Prada to Nada; in 2013, she was also in two Mexican box office hits, Nosotros los Nobles and Instructions Not Included. In 2014, Souza moved to Los Angeles to pursue English-language film and television roles. She was cast as a series regular in the Shonda Rhimes-produced legal drama series How to Get Away with Murder as law student Laurel Castillo, opposite Viola Davis. In February 2015, Souza appeared on the cover of Women’s Health.

Personal life

Souza is multilingual: fluent in Spanish, English, and French. In December 2013, she became engaged to Marshall Trenkmann. The couple married in California in May 2014. Karla has dual citizenship in Mexico and the United States. She gave a TEDx talk in Leon, Guanajuato, on March 21, 2015. It was titled "Sweet are the Fruits of Adversity". It became the most-seen Spanish TEDx talk with more than a million views.