Press Kit

VALERIE CRUZ
With an extensive resume that reflects
her ability to craft diverse characters in
TV and film, classically trained actress
Valerie Cruz has made an indelible mark
on fans and industry professionals. Cruz
most recently joined the cast of FOX’s
hit series The Following where she plays
strong-willed FBI Agent Gina Mendez,
who alongside Ryan Hardy (Kevin
Bacon), heads the investigation on serial
killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy).
Season three of the psychological drama
series returned on March 2, 2015.
Prior to this, Cruz's leading role as
Grace Santiago on the F/X drama
Nip/Tuck marked the start of her
television career. In 2008, Cruz pulled
double duty on two different television
series, as Maria Nolan on Kevin
Williamson's drama Hidden Palms, and as Connie Murphy in Syfy and Saturn Film's series The
Dresden Files. Her performance on The Dresden Files earned her a 2008 ALMA Award
nomination for "Outstanding Female Lead Performance in a Drama Series."
Cruz was also a part of Showtime's hit series Dexter, which led to another nomination for
"Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series" at the 2009 SAG Awards.
Immediately after, she joined the cast of HBO's True Blood, as vampire Isabel in their second
season. Cruz then booked a leading role as Dr. Zee Alvarez in the ABC series Off The Map,
created by Jenna Bans and produced by the prolific Shondaland Productions. Her
momentum continued with a recurring arc on Showtime’s award winning series Homeland
where she played Major Joy Mendez. Along with these powerful roles, she has also made
guest and recurring appearances on network heavyweight shows such as: Scandal, Law and
Order SVU, Criminal Minds, Grey's Anatomy, to mention a few.
In addition to her mainstream body of work, Cruz has made her mark on the independent
film circuit with films like the action-drama THE LINE opposite Ray Liotta and Andy
Garcia, as well as THE DEVIL’S TOMB opposite Cuba Gooding Jr., Ray Winstone and
Ron Perlman. She recently wrapped production on the independent thriller THE LOFT
where she starred alongside James Marsden and Eric Stonestreet.
Originally from Elizabeth, New Jersey, Cruz currently lives in New York City.
PRESS
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http://www.weather.com/tv/shows/wake-up-with-al/video/weathers-role-in-filming-the-following
http://www.people.com/people/videos/0,,20905028,00.html
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/28298052/kevin-bacon-co-star-valerie-cruz-asks-howmany-degrees-of-separation
The second season of “The Following” ended with a bang and actress Valerie Cruz
assures fans that the new season is going to start the same way.
The third season of the hit FOX show picks up several months after last year’s season
finale, finally giving the characters, especially FBI agent Ryan Hardy – played by Kevin
Bacon – some down time. But that serenity goes away pretty quickly.
“It’s really amazing,” Cruz told Fox News Latino about season three, which premieres
Monday night. “It has all the elements from last year, but so much more.”
She continued: “(This season) you learn more about these people, not just having it be the
‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’. It’s more balanced. I mean we catch the bad guys this
year, but we are also more invested in all of the characters. Fans will feel more like you
are part of the story.”
Cruz, 38, said the writers and producers really tried to change things up for the new
season and make it even better than before.
“You don’t want to be complacent,” she said. “There are more reasons to say that it’s
more different than other shows on TV.”
As for her character, FBI agent Gina Mendez, she has more responsibility and her
relationship with Hardy changes.
“They become great friends, close – it’s a different relationship moving forward,” said
Cruz, adding, “You (also) get to see her more as a person. Her sense of humor and more
‘real life’ stuff. Not just work.”
Almost immediately, Mendez gets married. That story line definitely took her by surprise
and is “a great jumping-off point.”
“It’s not the white wedding you expect,” she said.
But episode 2 is really when the wheels start rolling for Cruz, who calls it “mind
blowing.”
“I was shocked while reading (the script),” she said. “(Season three) uses more
imagination, more suspense … and it translates to what you feel while watching it on TV.
You stay with bated breath, scene by scene.”
The Cuban-American actress also chimed in about the recent news regarding Cuba and
the United States, telling Fox News Latino that the moves by both countries to establish
diplomatic ties once again is “huge.”
“There would be a better sense of cohesion (between the two countries),” Cruz said. “It’s
an island that is only 90 miles away.”
She said that for her personally, she is excited about the possibility to visit and see more
of her family still living on the island.
“I think this the tip of the iceberg,” Cruz said.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2015/03/02/following-actress-valerie-cruz-givesinside-scoop-to-season-three/
“The Following,” Fox’s often-gruesome serial killer investigation show, gave viewers a
bit of a surprise in its third season premiere. And no, we’re not talking about the new
killers who were introduced. We’re talking about the cheerful, happy wedding sequence
that opened the episode, as FBI agent Gina Mendez wed her partner, as series lead Ryan
Hardy (Kevin Bacon) and others laughed and danced. “It was short-lived, wasn’t it?”
says Valerie Cruz, who plays Mendez, with a laugh.
She’s speaking of the distraught man who showed up and tossed blood on the guests
during the party, but Cruz says it was a fun break for the cast to film the scene. “I think
Shawn Ashmore live-tweeted, ‘So weird to see everyone so happy! And I think a minute
and a half later, I was tweeting him back, ‘Well, that was short-lived, so don’t worry! No
reason to feel weird.’”
Cruz says this season will see its fair share of new villains (you may have noticed the
couple with the “Natural Born Killers” vibe in the premiere), but don’t expect the show’s
main killer, Joe Carroll, to fade away.
“I think the whole idea is that as the years go on between Ryan [Hardy] and him, you
don’t know where one ends and the other begins. They start to merge together. I think
Ryan carries a lot of Joe Carroll in his psyche.”
Viewers can also expect a certain amount of moral shakiness on the part of the good
guys. “Everybody has a touch of the criminal in them this year, to some extent,” hints
Cruz. Even Gina? “I guess in some ways, because she continues to always look the other
way. I think they’re all complicit.”
As to what it’s like being on a show with such a high body count, Cruz reveals, “No one
is safe, ever, on our show.” With that in mind, it sounds like something pretty crazy will
go down in Monday’s episode. “When people watch episode 2, it’ll be shocking. I think I
am allowed to say that. It’ll catch you by surprise.”
Viewers can expect Gina and Ryan to be on slightly better ground this season. “The
relationship is less adversarial, for certain, and I would say more friendship-oriented.”
That said, Ryan can be a tough friend to have. “He puts people in harm’s way or at risk
because the drawing the line of right and wrong and how to do things eludes him. That
will continue to elude him and continue to be an adversarial sort of encounter between
the two of them as far as the best way to approach things.”
http://www.metro.us/entertainment/no-rest-for-the-wicked-on-the-following-says-valeriecruz/zsJocf---RbcxU7qEcIXY/
Fox’s perpetual thrill ride, The Following, may be Kevin Bacon’s show, but it would be
nothing without Valerie Cruz. Cruz, who joined The Following Season 2 as FBI Agent Gina
Mendez, plays perhaps the only character that fans can trust to really have a handle on all of
the serial killer happenings. Even better, this character embodies many groups who don’t get
enough visibility on TV: she’s a woman of color who also happens to be a lesbian. “I like
playing a character who happens to be gay and where it has nothing to do with whether she’s
good or bad at her job… it’s an honor and a joy to do that, because that’s how real life is… I
think that the show really does a good job at that, and portraying minorities.”
Unlike Bacon’s character, Ryan Hardy, whose borderline obsession with tracking down Joe
Carroll and co. puts him in constant danger 24/7, Mendez has remained level-headed despite
the craziness surrounding her — which is an impressive feat on this show. Of course, in a
show where serial killers are everywhere, it’s only a matter of time before it all goes wrong.
And if there’s one person who can facilitate chaos, it’s Joe Carroll, the Poe-reciting serial
killer and the show’s original Big Bad.
Now that Ryan has visited Joe in prison, how will that affect his own psyche? According to
Cruz, the answer is a lot. “Ryan knows he is opening Pandora’s box… It’s why he didn’t go
to see Joe right away. The dynamics of their relationship have definitely changed… The
Ryan and Joe ‘bromance,’ for lack of a better word, is somewhat back, but in a twisted way.”
Of course, that’s not to say that Cruz thinks Ryan has made a mistake — at least, not for the
viewer’s sake. “The show wouldn’t be a show without James Purefoy, who plays Joe Carroll.
Joe is the person that our characters are striving to get or put away or kill, or he’s the person
who influences the other people who are killing, so if there was no Joe Carroll, there really
wouldn’t be any show.”
Joe may have been the show’s very first big bad, and he’s certainly a fan favorite character
despite his penchant for murder. But, according to Cruz, he’s not the person she’s the most
afraid of on the show — that title is reserved for a brand new character, one that might be
even more twisted than Joe, the twins, or Lily Grey.
“We have so many twisted characters on the show it’s really hard to choose one…” she tells
me. “I think Michael Ealy’s character [upcoming Season 3 character Theo] is probably the
most violent of all of the characters… he’s the kind of person that, you see it in their eyes,
you don’t want to be alone with them. With Joe, it’s a little bit more psychological…. [Ealy’s
character] is like our Domer… there is no moral compass.”
Prior to the resurgence of a serial killer community (this one seemingly not run by Joe
Carroll) Ryan, Mendez, and the rest of the gang were happy. Mendez got married in the
season opener, and Ryan was revealed to have a serious girlfriend… which, naturally, made
everyone suspicious. Can we trust Ryan’s new lady friend Gwen, or could she be a potential
follower? Cruz’s character, Mendez, was in that boat in Season 2, when it was revealed that
her own ex-girlfriend was a follower of Joe’s.
Now, Mendez is married to a woman whom, we hope, doesn’t turn out to be evil herself. As
for Mendez’s lesbian relationship, it’s refreshing to see a show that has LGBT characters
without having their sexuality be the crux of their character development, and Cruz agrees
that it’s a particularly important aspect of the show. “I hope we get to a point where we stop
seeing these lines between people and their gender preferences. It’s really like New York, if
you go out on the street you’ll see people of different [identities], and I think we really
represent that well on our show.” Of course, the most important thing to know about the
season is Cruz’s feelings on my own person OTP, Max and Mike. Does she ship them as
hard as the fans do? The answer is, of course. “Can you tell me who doesn’t want to get them
together?” she said. “I don’t know a single person who doesn’t want them to get together.”
The Following might not be the happiest of TV shows, but Cruz leaves me with this optimistic
piece of information. “You’ll get plenty of Maxton later this season. The writers are all over
that.”
http://www.bustle.com/articles/73351-the-following-actress-valerie-cruz-twisted-bromances-scaryserial-killers-whether-well-get-more-maxton
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20777911,00.html
CONTACT
Management
Pearl Hanan Management
Pearl Hanan
323-876-3602
Publicity
MLC PR
Mona Loring-LA
Kelli Jones- NY
323-965-5599