Biography
Giselle De La Rosa is a proud daughter of immigrants. Born to Colombian parents in Southern California, she was raised in a family of artists and at a young age began to take dance lessons. She spent her childhood and adolescence dancing and performing at The Dodger's Stadium, KLOS' Mark and Brian Takesgiving Parade, The Anaheim Pond and The L.A. Coliseum.
In her senior year of high school, Giselle was named a Top Ten Dancer with Dance USA. She went on to teach ballet, lyrical and jazz dance to kids and and dabble in choreography, costuming and photography. She was part of the educational touring dance company based out of Orange Coast College called Danc'n Etc where they performed at various high schools to educate students on social justice issues. After attending college at various campuses she graduated from California State University, Fullerton where she earned a BA in Communications with an emphasis on Entertainment Studies and minored in Comparative Religion.
The summer after graduating from college she traveled to Costa Rica to aid in environmental conservation. When she returned home she started a family before moving to Austin, Texas. After many years of being a stay-at-home mother, she was invited to attend the Tom Todoroff Acting Conservatory in New York City where she was voted to speak at the commencement ceremony. It was at the acting conservatory where she also fell in love with producing and shining the light on others and their work. Since returning to Austin she has performed in various productions on stage and on camera, produced short films and began her work with various film festivals.
Giselle is Co-Founder of Austin Arthouse Film Festival - spotlighting work from filmmakers around the world who defy conventions and tropes, who champion art over mass appeal and whose work challenges audience expectation. After going virtual for the past three years due to the pandemic, the fest had a name change to The Arthouse Film Festival. They published the Arthouse Quarterly, hosted film challenges for filmmakers that were quarantined and raised thousands of dollars only to be given back to their filmmaking community. They have also hosted pop up screenings in Austin and Los Angeles.
Giselle was part of the inaugural board at Women In Film and Television WIFT Austin as the Community Partnership Co-Chair and is a board member of In the Dew of Little Things - a 501(c)(3) non-profit designed to provide, promote or enhance services for the underserved through art and stewardship for the purpose of friendship and solidarity. Recently, she joined the B. Iden Payne Awards Council where they recognize outstanding theatrical performance, production and design in Austin.
Her notable theatre collaborations have been with Ground Floor Theatre, Theatre En Bloc, Performance Platform Austin, ScriptWorks, Marfa Live Arts and has appeared in various commercials, plays, staged readings and independent film. Giselle is the recipient of two B. Iden Payne awards, a Broadway World Award, the Allison Wood Texas Actress award among other Film Festival awards. She was invited to participate in Richard Linklater's AFS Artist Intensive and worked with Director Athina Rachel Tsangari and most recently did a reading of Eugene Inesco's Rhinoceros with actor Vincent Kartheiser.
Giselle has appeared as a guest speaker for the Film and Sequence Class at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and The Summer Theatre Series hosted by the Austin Independent School District and was the moderator for the Directing Texas Women block at the Lake Travis Film Festival as well as a guest Moderator with AFS Cinema co-presenting the highly acclaimed film Tótem by Director Lila Avilés. It was the Mexican entry for Best International Feature Film at that this year's 96th Academy Awards.
Giselle has spent numerous hours volunteering with various efforts and organizations most recently as a Volunteer Deputy Registrar, with SuperMajority, Austin Animal Center and Fusebox Festival.
She has screened films for various festivals including Austin Film Festival and SXSW (2021-2023) and is the Associate Festival Director for Cine Las Americas, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to promote cross-cultural understanding and growth by educating, entertaining, and challenging audiences through film and media arts specifically made by Indigenous, Latiné and Pan-American people since 1998.
