celebforum - Christina Ochoa

Christina Ochoa (born Cristina Ochoa Lopez; January 25, 1985 in Barcelona, Spain) is a Spanish actress, scientist and author.

Early life

Christina is the grand-niece of 1959 Nobel Prize winner Severo Ochoa, and daughter of acclaimed Spanish sculptor Victor Ochoa. She has spent her life surrounded by members of both the scientific and artistic world.
Theatre and film

Christina Ochoa began acting as a hobby, starting out in theatrical plays in Washington, D.C., at the Little Theatre of Alexandria. She soon decided to pursue a career in performance arts, and moved to Madrid in order to study and work in the field. She has said: "Science was all my life .... But when I got on stage for the first time, there was a void inside me that was suddenly filled ... one I hadn't even known was empty."

From there, Christina moved on to work in theatre and TV, including on I Hate My Teenage Daughter, Modern Family and Spain's La que se avecina, as well as in films, including Cats Dancing on Jupiter.

She is the founder and owner of QE (Quantum Entanglement) Productions, responsible for the 2011 short film Stay with Me, which won awards at film festivals both in Europe and the United States.

She currently plays Karen Morales, on the Robert Rodriguez show, Matador.

Writing

Ochoa has written articles for several publications. Her first published work was featured in Vogue Spain. She has regular spreads featured in H, in which she focuses on profile pieces and book reviews. She also has a monthly film column in El Imparcial.
Science and academia

After graduating from Santa Isabel La Asuncion in Madrid, she went on to study oceanographic engineering at Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria, off the coast of Africa in the Canary Islands. She continued with advanced marine biology studies at James Cook University in Australia, where she focused on the Elasmobranchii subclass of fish, which includes sharks and rays.

She is currently studying physics at the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED) and has been an active member of Mensa since 2009.

Ochoa is part of the Los Angeles Committee for Science for Society, which promotes science in society and scientific literacy, and which is the sponsor of the Intel Science and Engineering Fair; ISEF.[1] She has also participated as an expert guest on scientific comedy podcast "Professor Blastoff", part of the Earwolf network.