Biografia
Francheska Bardacke was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to two lawyers, one of whom served as the state's Attorney General. She began acting in middle and high school productions. Discovered by a John Robert Powers modeling scout at a shopping mall, she briefly pursued modeling before focusing on tennis, piano, theater, and horseback riding. In college, Francheska majored in Political Science and participated in theater and tennis at The Colorado College and Worcester College, Oxford University.
At Oxford, she studied International Relations and Shakespeare, earning a lead role as Mara in Michael Frayn's "Clouds." Returning to Colorado and New Mexico, she performed in Neil LaBute's "Bash," Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Their Teeth," "Macbeth," and "Tuesdays with Morrie." After college, she worked in the Wrangler department of "Commanche Moon," connecting with horses and animals. She also did extra work in local productions and served as assistant tennis coach at her former high school. She appeared in a local paintball commercial, a spin-off of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which won an Addy Award.
While applying to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and law school, she acted as the Mom in a ketchup commercial after an exam. She made the National Mock Trial team and earned a national scholarship to attend the Trial Lawyers' College in Dubois, Wyoming. After graduating, she moved to California, improvised on set as a zombie saying "shitballs," qualifying her for SAG-AFTRA membership, though she did not join until 2019. During that time, she passed the New Mexico bar exam, worked on Terrence Malick's "Voyage of Time," and practiced law at the District Attorney's Office in Albuquerque for five years.
After a year of practicing law, while on the set of "A Million Ways to Die in the West," she reconnected with wranglers and worked on the film "Hostiles" during a medical leave from the DA's office due to a skiing-related knee injury. She worked on set wearing a knee brace, helping with horse care. In 2019, she joined SAG-AFTRA and worked on "News of the World" before moving into private practice, focusing on personal injury and civil rights. She remained active through the pandemic and the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, continuing to advocate for victims of the prison industrial complex deprived of constitutionally adequate medical care and services in New Mexico prisons.
