Biography

Writer/Director Diego Velasco was born in the states but raised in Caracas, Venezuela. His first feature, "The Zero Hour", broke all Venezuelan box office records. Velasco was featured as one of the Ten Mover and Reshapers of Latin American Cinema by Variety Magazine. His first US project, Cybergeddon, was a digital crime-thriller from visionary storyteller and CSI creator Anthony E. Zuicker. True to its cyber nature, the film, which stars Missy Peregrym and Oliver Martinez, had a day and date release in more than 25 countries via Yahoo! -surpassing over 1 billion views. On the TV front, Velasco directed the immigration episode for the final season of the Emmy Award-winning Orange is the New Black, an episode which The New Yorker singled out as "Brilliant". He also directed the comedy Teenage Bounty Hunters (created by Kathleen Jordan, produced by Jenji Kohan), Diary of a Future President (created by Ilana Peña, produced by Gina Rodriguez), and Gentefied (created by Marvin Lemus & Linda Yvette Chávez, produced by America Ferrera).

Velasco served as the Producing/Director for the second season of BET/Showtime Twenties (created by Lena Waithe). He was also the Producing / Director for Social Distance, the first scripted anthology to be produced remotely during the COVID 19 pandemic (created by Hilary Wiseman Graham and produced by Jenji Kohan).

Velasco's next feature, The Whistler, is a thriller based on the Venezuelan legend of the same name. The script, written by Carolina Paiz (Orange is the New Black, Narcos) was selected for the Sundance Writers Lab. His most recent TV Directing credits include the soon-to-be-released series This Fool (Hulu) and Grease, Rise of the Pink Ladies (Paramount+).
- IMDb mini biography by: Latinx Directors Official Site Bio

He directed his first film during high school in Venezuela when he was 15. Instead of reading a play for Spanish literature class he convinced the teacher to let him make a film instead. It was the only class he ever got an A during high school