Lorli Villanueva

Lorli has been in Philippine theater, television and films for more than three decades. She was awarded Best Supporting Actress in 1972 at the Manila Film Festival and nominated numerous times for awards including at the First International Film Festival in Manila, Philippines. She directed the longest running daily soap opera in Philippine television, Flor de Luna. She has done over 60 films during her career in Philippine cinema and was lead in at least half a dozen television shows aside from countless guest appearances in other television shows. She went on to direct TV movies of historical and educational themes for commercial channels and the Dept. of Education of the Philippines. She ultimately put up her own production company, Tri-Media Productions, which was subsequently renamed Emmaus Productions, considered one of the most active public relations, advertising, talent agency and production company in the Philippines in the 90's. Lorli was president and CEO of Tri-Media/Emmaus Productions. Emmaus produced numerous theater productions including educational print materials for schools as well as training programs for beginning theater companies around the Philippines and abroad, specifically Australia, Japan and Korea. Her efforts were mostly under the sponsorship of the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts. Lorli started her career in the theater as a founding member of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) under the tutelage of Cecile Guidote Alvarez, who is now the Commissioner of the National Commission for the Culture & the Arts and Executive Director the International Theater Institute, in 1967, after completing an Integrated Arts Program with UNESCO. Lorli trained with the best European and Western direction 1972, she moved on to television and films and has since been a celebrated and highly respected figure in Philippine show business and the arts. She co-founded the Visual Artists Cooperative of the Philippines with Dean Jose Joya and the Kalinangan ng Lahi Theater Café with fellow artist, Joonee Gamboa, at the Araneta Center. Before coming to the U.S., Lorli was for several years Chairman of the Board of Judges for the Palanca Literary Awards, considered the most prestigious literary award giving body in the Philippines.