Biography
Fátima Ptacek is an American actress, model, and human rights advocate involved with UN Women's #HeForShe campaign promoting gender equality. She is best known for starring in the 2012 Academy Award-winning short film Curfew and its 2014 feature-length adaptation, Before I Disappear. Since 2010, she has voiced the lead character "Dora" in Nickelodeon's animated series Dora the Explorer and continued the role in Dora and Friends: Into the City! starting in 2014. A gymnast competing at Level 7 in USA Gymnastics, she also participates in English equestrian riding and aimed to qualify for the Olympic Games as of 2010.
In 2010, Ptacek expressed goals of earning a scholarship to Harvard or Yale and was enrolled in a school for intellectually gifted children, though she wondered if she might be too old to continue acting by then. She was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society in 2013 and has shown interest in pursuing a law career in the future. As a child, she dreamed of becoming President of the United States, which led to an invitation to observe debates in the New York State Assembly and Senate. Assemblyman Francisco Moya publicly acknowledged her contributions to the arts during an Assembly session. In 2013, the New York City Council honored her academic, professional, and philanthropic achievements with a Proclamation presented by then-Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member Daniel Dromm.
Fluent in English and Spanish, Ptacek has also studied Mandarin Chinese since childhood. As a child actress, she appeared in over 70 television commercials and graced the covers of many national magazines. She was among the few child models to walk the runway at Bryant Park during New York City's Fall Fashion Week. Discovered by Wilhelmina Models and represented by Abrams Artists Agency during her early career, her acclaimed performance in Curfew attracted interest from major talent agencies including CAA, UTA, WME, and ICM; she ultimately signed with ICM.
By 2010, Ptacek was one of the highest-paid child models globally, earning around $250,000 annually. She served as the face of Ralph Lauren and featured in campaigns for designers like Bonnie Young, Miss Sixty, Monna Lisa, Siviglia, and brands such as Guess, The Gap, H&M, and Benetton. A standout campaign was Macy’s 2009 holiday season promotion, where she reprised Natalie Wood’s childhood role of "Virginia" in Macy’s Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus campaign. This included full-page ads in major New York newspapers, TV commercials alongside celebrities like Queen Latifah, Donald Trump, Martha Stewart, and Carlos Ponce, and public appearances supporting the literacy organization Reading Is Fundamental (RIF). She also appeared on the cover of Newsweek. Her parents have noted that they financed photographers to capture her, rather than the other way around.
Ptacek volunteers as a Celebrity Ambassador for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and has contributed to the Make-A-Wish Foundation through Macy’s Believe Campaign and worked with Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. Passionate about reading, she has supported the SAG Foundation’s BookPALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools) and Reading Is Fundamental. In 2013, the Latino Commission on AIDS named her Youth Ambassador at their Cielo Latino benefit gala.
