Dynamic actress Manuela Osmont’s stunning beauty is matched only by her ability to meld into character. Highly talented and experienced, Manuela has been at home on stage and behind the camera since the age of five. Raised and trained in four countries on three continents, her works run the proverbial gamut; from Gnossienne, a film which grapples with the subject of clinical depression, to the lighthearted Vice-Versa about a love triangle with a twist.

In the tragic and beautiful Gnossienne, which was recently accepted as an Official Selection of the Cannes Short Film Corner, Osmont plays the wife of a doctor. After the death of their first child, Osmont’s character becomes hopelessly depressed. The film follows her and her husband as she grapples with depression, and through the narrative the film examines one of the most prevalent mental illnesses in society.

“Each person is very singular about how they deal with grief and the loss of a child, and I enjoyed being able to experiment with my character’s vulnerable side,” said Osmont.

Osmont’s astounding ability to shift characters is seen in Mariana Can, where she plays the role of a prostitute who meets a writer and becomes his muse. The setting and cinematography take a surreal approach, making this film, like all of Osmont’s work, a cerebral and artistic examination of human emotion.

“I try and go for the roles with big moments and emotions that truly reflect how people behave,” Osmont said about choosing her roles. “I mostly try to do the projects that scare me the most. If I read a script and start to doubt my ability to do it, then I go for it. In my opinion, that’s what helps me grow.”

In Vice-Versa, Osmont plays a married woman who is having an affair; only, the woman she is seeing is also involved in a tryst with her husband. Osmont’s first comedic film role, Vice-Versa forced her out of her element; exactly what she loves in a role.

“I usually try and choose roles that I haven’t done,” Osmont said. “I don’t want to put myself in a box.”

In addition to her film experience, Osmont has spent practically her entire life on stage. Her repertoire includes roles such as Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Queen Margaret in Henry VI, Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire and Carol Cutrere in Orpheus Descending. Of her work on stage though, her most dynamic role was that of Sergei Upgobkin in Tony Kushner’s Slavs. The play centers on the fall of the USSR, with Osmont playing an old Bolshevik man.

“I had to work really hard to get the Russian accent right combined with the voice of an old man, which proved to be quite challenging, but a lot of fun nonetheless,” said Osmont, the consummate professional.

All of Osmont’s experience onstage and in front of the camera is compounded by her training at the renowned Cours Florent Acting School in Paris and UCLA’s Film School. A polyglot, Osmont fluently speaks French, Spanish and English, and is functional in German and Italian as well. With her diverse background Osmont is able to blend into almost any cross-cultural role.

“Because my father is French and my mother is Colombian, I am ethnically ambiguous; I get called in for European, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and sometimes even Indian parts,” said Osmont.

Her upcoming projects include Across The Desert, a film about a devoted sister spreading her brother’s ashes along a road trip; Smoking Gun, about a spy in the CIA who learns more than she’s supposed to; and Galleon, about the search for a shipwreck containing an enormous cache of treasure.