About

Paulina Aparicio-Rosales is a first-generation Guatemalan‑Colombian American performance artist based in Chicago! Her artistic pursuit is infused with the rhythm, resilience, and passion of her Latin American lineage, with her art being a living celebration of identity, ancestry, and culture through the body and language.

At sixteen, Paulina began her pre-professional training at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, where she cultivated a living devotion to poetry and found the courage to live an artistic life. Upon graduating, she journeyed to Bogotá, Colombia, to create theater in her native tongue. There, she trained at Teatro Casa E Borrero under the direction of Alejandra Borrero and Camilo Carvajal De La Rivera, where her craft took flight through movement, music, and protest performance. Weekly, she and her collaborators devised performances for the streets of Bogota, bringing theater directly into conversation with the city and its people. A profound experience that continues to fuel her work.

She later earned her BFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater Actor Training Program, with additional study at Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. 

Her post‑graduate journey has been an embodied exploration of life. From hiking the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to scuba diving in the Caribbean, and even guiding whitewater rafts in North Carolina. She lives with a commitment to discovery through joy, remaining grateful for all that continues to unfold. And she would loveeee to make art with YOU! 

reviews:

“This new Juliet is at the center of “Romeo and Juliet: Love in a Time of Hate," She’s not posing or dancing to the latest hooks, but she’s Instagram and Tik-Tok ready. As played with electricity by sparkplug actor Paulina Aparicio-Rosales, she has agency and power. She makes the moves on Romeo.” -Rohan Preston (Minnesota Star Tribune)

“Paulina Aparicio-Rosales is a great Juliet. She hits the notes of an impassioned teenager perfectly and her second performance of the song that bookends the play might just break your heart.” -Buer Carlie (Lavender Magazine)