Rene Aranda
Aranda in 2018
Born	Rene Michelle Aranda (1990-12-06)December 6, 1990 (age 34) Whittier, California
Other names	Ren
Occupation(s)	Actress, singer
Years active	2011–present
Known for	Papa
Family	Michael Aranda(brother)
Website	renearanda.com

Rene Michelle Aranda, sometimes credited asRen Aranda, (born December 6, 1990) is an American actress and singer, best known forSearching andMidnight in the Switchgrass. She has won Best Actress (Silverstate Film Festival, 2018),^[1] Best Supporting Actress (LA Edge Film Awards, 2018)^[2] and Outstanding Performance by an Actress (Kennedy CenterACT Festival)^[3][4][5] and finished as a semifinalist in theJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Center'sIrene Ryan scholarship program.^[6]

Aranda was born inWhittier, California, to Frank and Cheryl Aranda. She was raised in the nearby city ofChino Hills, where Aranda grew up with older brother Michael Aranda (YouTube creator and musician), older sister Sara Ann Aranda and younger brother Frank Nathan Aranda. Her mother was a self produced singer/songwriter throughCD Baby and secretary to the college dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics atCal State Fullerton^[7] until she died June 27, 2009, after a seven-year battle with breast cancer.^[8]

Aranda is an alumnus of theLos Angeles City College Theater Academy, a three-year, audition-only acting conservatory at whichMorgan Freeman,Mark Hamill,Cindy Williams andBette Davis studied.^[9] Just before graduating in 2012, she won the national award "Outstanding Performance by an Actress" in theKennedy Center American College Theater Festival for her role as Willy the Space Freak in a gender-bent adaptation ofSam Shepard'sThe Unseen Hand.^[3]

For her role as "Van's Sister" in LACC's stage production ofBert V. Royal'sDog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead in 2010, Aranda was nominated for theJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing ArtsIrene Ryan scholarship,^[6] for which actors compete as a part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. She made it to the semi-finals.

First invited to the set of networkCinelatino distributed filmSmile Now Cry Later as a background actor by a fellow Theater Academy alum, Aranda was later asked to replace a crew member on a subsequent film before being locked in for two more features (Fighting Chance andCherry Red Kiss) and by the fourth production (Until the Day I Die), she served the company Plus Entertainment as an in-house producer, appearing on screen in each title she helped produce.^[9]

Aranda was featured with touring architect Alán Ramiro Manning in theWoodbury University Neo-Tribes Runway Event^[10] on May 1 and 2 2013, donning a Jenny Erin Davis (Black Lightning) design of aBram Stoker's Dracula inspired Elisabeta (Transylvania 1462), wearingStila makeup.

In addition to her film and television career, Aranda debuted as a musical artist in 2018, releasing two pop singles a few months apart onSpotify,^[11]iTunes,^[12]iHeartRadio^[13] and other online streaming platforms.

In February 2024, Aranda was diagnosed with aBRCA1 mutation, which affects the tumor suppressor gene and increases the risk of certain cancers. Later that year, she was also diagnosed with high-gradeDuctal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), an aggressive type of breast cancer. She has since undergone multiple surgeries to remove and prevent cancer growth, and has shared her & her sister's experiences publicly on social media,^{[14][15][16][17]} advocating for awareness about genetic testing of hereditary cancers.

Aranda is a regular volunteer reader and occasional coordinator forReading to Kids,^[18] and ran on the foundation's charity relay team in theLos Angeles Marathon in 2016.^[19]

She also participates as a volunteer actor inYoung Storytellers "Big Show" productions.

• Rene Aranda atIMDb
• Rene Michelle Aranda onFandango
• Rene Michelle Aranda onRotten Tomatoes
• Rene Michelle ArandaArchived 2022-07-25 at theWayback Machine onMetacritic
• Ren Aranda onSpotify
• Ren Aranda oniTunes
• ReneAranda.com
• "Meet Rene Michelle Aranda of Starpark Studios" - Voyage LA Magazine

• Living people
• 1990 births
• 21st-century American actresses
• Actresses from Whittier, California
• People from Chino Hills, California
• Actresses from San Bernardino County, California
• American film actresses
• American television actresses
• American actresses of Mexican descent

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using infobox person with deprecated parameters
• Webarchive template wayback links