<\/p>\n
Liza Col\u00f3n-Zayas poses for a portrait. Credit – Emily Assiran <\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen Liza Col\u00f3n-Zayas accepted an Emmy<\/a> in 2024 for her performance as a headstrong line cook on The Bear<\/a>, she thanked her family and her collaborators on the show. She expressed shock that she\u2019d won amid a field of nominees that included Meryl Streep<\/a> and Carol Burnett. Then, clutching her trophy, she said: \u201cTo all the Latinas who are looking at me, keep believing.\u201d<\/p>\n In a very real sense, as the first Latina to win the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, her victory doubled as a triumph for the women of her community. Col\u00f3n-Zayas, who had been acting on stage and screen for more than three decades by the time she earned that recognition, wanted Latinas to see in her success proof that their perseverance could pay off. \u201cIt\u2019s important to me that people who look like me not give in to feeling discouraged,\u201d she explains, nearly a year later. \u201cI felt that for so long about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Tenacity is a quality Col\u00f3n-Zayas, 53, shares with her Bear character, Tina. Standoffish in early episodes about the incursion of two young fine-dining chefs into the kitchen of the Chicago sandwich shop where she worked, Tina has since grown her skillset in tandem with The Beef\u2019s transformation into a destination restaurant, The Bear. Her defining moment\u2014and Col\u00f3n-Zayas\u2019\u2014came in the Season 3<\/a> episode \u201cNapkins,\u201d which flashed back to the day she was hired at The Beef and revealed that cooking was a second career for Tina, who\u2019d struggled to find employment in the wake of her dismissal from an office job she\u2019d held for years. When Col\u00f3n-Zayas first read the script, \u201cI cried,\u201d she recalls. \u201cTina represents such a wide swath of people who keep this country running, yet who are invisible.\u201d A guest appearance by her real spouse, the actor David Zayas, as Tina\u2019s caring husband added to the episode\u2019s authenticity.<\/p>\n \u201cTina started out, to some people, very problematic,\u201d says Col\u00f3n-Zayas, who received a second Emmy nomination in July. \u201cI don\u2019t mind playing those roles, as long as I know that eventually there will be room to bring humanity.\u201d Which is precisely what \u201cNapkins\u201d allowed her to do, after a couple of seasons during which the source of Tina\u2019s frustration wasn\u2019t always obvious. When The Bear<\/a> finally let viewers in on the character\u2019s inner life, she says, \u201cso many people were able to feel seen.\u201d For her, this just goes to show that \u201cif your creators are open to a diverse world, those stories will appear.\u201d<\/p>\n Col\u00f3n-Zayas has certainly done her part to increase their visibility. Born and raised in the Bronx, she is a founding member of the LAByrinth Theater Company (originally known as Latino Actors Base). In 2000, she wrote, produced, and starred in Sistah Supreme, a one-woman show drawn from her experiences growing up Puerto Rican in New York. An original cast member of Between Riverside and Crazy, she helped Stephen Adly Guirgis take his Pulitzer-winning play from its off-Broadway debut in 2014 to Broadway eight years later. While her acting career grew, she worked as a teaching artist in schools, shelters, and rehab programs. And though it was The Bear that put her on many viewers\u2019 radar, her Hollywood resume is rich with memorable roles in series like Law & Order: SVU,<\/a> whose fans still approach her on the street to let her know that they were \u201cemotionally destroyed\u201d by her arc as a mom seeking justice for her murdered son. Her versatility is sure to be an asset as she balances The Bear, slated to return for a fifth season in 2026, with upcoming projects that range from a Spider-Man movie<\/a> to a Hulu real-estate drama pilot<\/a> in which she plays a community leader on Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side.<\/p>\n As Latinos remain underserved by an entertainment industry whose escalating financial woes have led executives to deprioritize diversity, Col\u00f3n-Zayas is resolved to use her influence to promote the kind of \u201cauthentic, empowered, and layered\u201d representation she craves. \u201cAs a society and as artists,\u201d she says, \u201cwe are at an inflection point where we have to be willing to take those huge risks.\u201d<\/p>\n