Amalia Ortiz is an award-winning performance poet, an actress, and an activist. She was featured on three seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO, and on the NAACP Image Awards program on Fox. She is the creator of the one woman stage show Otra Esa on the Public Transit and stars in the award-winning independent film Speeder Kills. She is the first Latina poet to ever reach the final round at the National Poetry Slam, where her team took the second place prize. She lives in Harlingen, Texas.