Justina Machado

Justina Milagros Machado is an American actress born on September 6, 1972, in Chicago, Illinois. She is one of two children born to Alicia Morales Ruiz and Ismael Machado, both of Puerto Rican heritage, with family roots in Barceloneta and Barrio Jagual, Patillas, Puerto Rico. Her ancestry includes Afro-Latino lineage, a fact confirmed through mitochondrial DNA testing during her appearance on Season 6, Episode 6 of the PBS documentary series Finding Your Roots, hosted by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Machado grew up on the Northwest Side of Chicago in a Catholic household, and her family later expanded when her mother remarried and had three additional children. As a person of Hispanic descent, she observed a traditional quinceañera with chambelanes and damas.

From an early age, Machado was drawn to performance. She participated in school plays and studied dance at Franklin Fine Arts Center. She attended Lane Technical College Prep High School beginning in 1986, and during that period performed with the Latino Chicago Theater Company. After graduating from Lane Tech in 1990, she relocated to New York City, where her experience with the Latino Chicago Theater Company helped establish her professional footing. She subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where she landed her first two acting roles in 1996: a part as Elsa in the ABC series NYPD Blue, in the episode "Burnin' Love," and a co-starring role in the television film No One Would Tell. In 1997, she made her theatrical film debut in a supporting role as Carmen Rodriguez in the romantic drama She's So Lovely.

Machado built her early television résumé through guest appearances on series including Arsenio, Any Day Now, Touched by an Angel, Early Edition, and Angel, as well as a recurring role on the UPN sitcom Goode Behavior. In 2001, she appeared in the action comedy film Sticks and in a minor role in Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence. That same year, she was cast as Vanessa Diaz in the HBO comedy-drama series Six Feet Under, a role that began as a supporting part and grew into one of the show's central characters over its run from 2001 to 2005. She and her castmates received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for their work on the show. In 2003, she appeared in the supernatural horror film Final Destination 2 as Isabella Hudson, and in 2004 she appeared in the action comedy Torque. Also in 2003, she starred in the Canadian crime drama series 1-800-Missing as FBI agent Sunny Estrada during the show's first season, and appeared in the music video for TLC's "Damaged," the third single from their fourth studio album 3D. In 2006, she starred in the drama film Little Fugitive, a remake of the 1953 film of the same name.

Machado's Broadway career spans from 2008 to 2025. She served as the first replacement for Andréa Burns in the Broadway production of In the Heights, and later appeared in A Free Man of Color. Her most prominent Broadway credit came in 2025 with Real Women Have Curves: The Musical, for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical. In addition to her Broadway work, she appeared in a 2008 production of Neil LaBute's Some Girl(s) at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, performed in Blade to the Heat and Black Butterfly at the Mark Taper Forum, and took part in the Los Angeles run of Love, Loss and What I Wore in 2010.

On television, Machado accumulated recurring roles on ER as Chicago police officer Claudia Diaz in 2009, and starred in the short-lived CBS medical drama Three Rivers from 2009 to 2010. She also had recurring roles on Private Practice, The Fosters, and Devious Maids, and guest appearances on Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Bones, Body of Proof, and Desperate Housewives. In 2013, she co-starred in the short-lived NBC sitcom Welcome to the Family alongside Ricardo Antonio Chavira. Her film credits from this period include The Call (2013) and The Purge: Anarchy (2014).

In 2016, Machado starred as Brenda Parra in the first season of the USA Network crime drama Queen of the South, later returning for a guest appearance in the show's fourth season. That same year she joined the cast of the CW comedy series Jane the Virgin as Darci Factor. Beginning in 2017, she starred as Penelope Alvarez, a single mother and Afghanistan veteran managing PTSD while raising two children, in the Netflix and later Pop TV comedy series One Day at a Time, a role she held through the show's conclusion in 2020 after four seasons. The performance earned her two Imagen Awards for Best Actress in Television and a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.

In 2019, Machado starred in the Lifetime television film Family Pictures and began a recurring role on the NBC comedy series Superstore as district manager Maya. In December 2019, she was cast as Teresa Betancourt from All in the Family in the second Live in Front of a Studio Audience special. In September 2020, she was announced as a competitor on the 29th season of Dancing with the Stars, partnered with professional dancer Sasha Farber, and finished the competition in fourth place on November 23, 2020. Also in 2020, she starred in the Netflix drama film All Together Now, and she and Jacob Vargas served as Masters of Ceremonies at the National Hispanic Media Coalition Impact Awards. In 2021, she starred in the Lifetime film Switched Before Birth, directed by Elisabeth Röhm, and appeared as a singing bust in Muppets Haunted Mansion.

In 2023, Machado took on the title role of Dolores Roach in the Amazon Prime Video black comedy-horror series The Horror of Dolores Roach, which received generally positive reviews. In 2024, she was cast as Dr. Natalie Cruz in the Netflix medical drama series Pulse, and appeared in the comedy film The Throwback alongside Will Sasso.