Mexican American actress and musician Paulina Chávez stars as the titular role of ‘Ashley Garcia’ in Netflix’s original series “The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia”, a multi-cam Latinx comedy co-created by Mario Lopez and “Speechless” producer Seth Kurland. The series centers on ‘Ashley Garcia’, the world’s first and only 15-year-old robotics engineer and rocket scientist, who lands her dream job working for NASA. She moves across the country to live with her fun-loving uncle ‘Victor’ (Jencarlos Canela), a pro football player-turned-high school coach who’s never met a responsibility he can’t shirk. Mario Lopez is an executive producer and Eva Longoria has directed several episodes of the series. Season 1 Part 1 is currently streaming on Netflix and Season 1 Part 2 is set to premiere early summer 2020. 

 

Born in El Paso, TX, at the age of six Paulina and her family moved to San Antonio, TX where she discovered her love of acting through her school’s theater program. She joined drama club in second grade and immersed herself in theatre, playing lead roles in Aladdin Jr., Beauty and the Beast Jr., The Little Mermaid Jr. among others. She began auditioning and booking roles for various short films, movies, voice-overs, regional commercials, as well as national TV commercials for Coca-Cola and 'Food Feuds: Latin Food' alongside award-winning chef Aarón Sánchez. She additionally landed co-starred as ‘Isabella’ in the thriller-series “Padre Pio” and landed the role of ‘Young Kim Kardashian’ in the TV series, “Scandal Made Me Famous”. 

 

In addition to acting, Paulina’s other passion is music and she began taking vocal lessons at a young age in preparation for musicals. She counts a wide range of musical influences including Shakira, Alejandro Fernandez, Luis Miguel, and Billie Eilish and her own music can best be described as “alternative meets Latin pop.” She has collaborated with co-star and Premio Lo Nuestro Award-winning singer Jencarlos Canela in exploring her sound and plans to work on an EP in the future. Paulina also played the violin in a San Antonio-based mariachi group which she continually praises for helping maintain her connection to her Latin roots. 

 

When she is not acting or singing, animal lover Paulina enjoys spending time with her border collie Luna and her cats Whiskey and Bublé. She is also an advocate for the Latinx community and focuses her attention on giving back. Paulina began offering a yearly scholarship for youth within her local San Antonio community in 2020. The past two years she partnered up with The Salvation Army SA to select students for her scholarship 'Be Your Own Kind of Genius'.

 

You can follow Paulina Chávez on Instagram at @PaulinafChavez. 

 

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