Desiree Marie Velez is an American actress, producer and co-host born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. She relocated to Virginia to finish High School and College. She majored in Drama which she flourished at due to life experiences with a blue-collar family in N.Y which exposed her to all accents, cultures, toughness and humor.

Her approach to acting is just an absorption of real people she's met, ones who influenced her, hurt her, loved her, her own achievements, failures and unduplicated moments that make up the layers of this onion and create her acting believability. Because acting classes can't teach life. One must live it and breath it into the characters she creates.

She has survived dinner theatre, studied Shakespeare as well at the Folger in Washington, D.C. and in a Midsummer program in England. But her style and versatility and an ability to duplicate accents all came from New York. With a knack for Comedy she fell into a comic improve group which took part in the Comic Relief special hosted by Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg using comedy to raise awareness for poverty. Her desire for more serious parts took her to Stage, film and television. Her ability to switch back and forth she claims any good actor can do: Because a smile is just an upside-down frown. Her breakout roles in Washington, D.C. Theatre were Joan in St. Joan by Shaw; Pam & Popo in Fat Men in Skirts by Niki Silvers. Which she was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her most recent return to the stage was in Sotto Voce by Nilo Cruz as Lucinda. All tragic women who find humor beneath their tears.

Her resume is filled with film, voice over and episodic work. The most recent film role is in the critically acclaimed Coffin film franchise (COFFIN 2) as the character Wendy where she debuted as an associate producer. She currently has signed on to the role of Dr. Stanton in the thriller EMPATH and joined the producing team as well. She can also be seen in the upcoming indie film Harvey, coming out in early 2021. 

She kicked off her episodic career as Virginia Ortolani opposite John Seda in the pilot of Oz. She has played supporting characters in the following Television series: October Road, Veep, The Haunting, Oz, Hack, Matlock and more. She has been blessed to play opposite Blair Underwood in a steamy scene in the film ASUNDER. She will always be grateful and honored to work alongside Blair Underwood, Michael Beech, Debbie Morgan, John Leguizamo, John Seda, Fiona Shaw, Samantha Mathis, Fisher Stevens the late Bob Hoskins, Andy Griffith and Dennis Hopper in projects you can see on IMDB at:


Desiree prefers to be called Desi by her friends. She's a lover of Zumba, Dance, Native American culture, history and art. She is proud Puerto Rican/ Taino heritage. She is a face and body artist/owner of Mystical Smiles Face painting and events. And she is owned by an African Grey named Rosie, 2 Pitbull/lab mixes Calisto and Thor and 2 newly adopted kittens. Potter and Weasley. She teaches English as a second language to elementary school kids. And Hopes to take up snowboarding.

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Visit her sites:

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IMDB

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0892452/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm

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Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Desireevelez10

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Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/only1desireemarievelez

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Her Main site:

https://www.desireemarievelez.com/

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