Biography

Rafi Mercado

For more than four decades, Rafi Mercado has worked across Hollywood, Broadway, international cinema, and live entertainment, creating stories where character, design, movement, and emotion become one. An award-winning Puerto Rican Artist of Cinema, Mercado is a director, producer, production designer, costume designer, creative director, educator, and mentor. His work is guided by his lifelong philosophy, La Vida es Arte (Life is Art), and by a creative approach centered on Character Development through Cinematic Universe Building.

Mercado began his professional career in Hollywood as Production Designer on Second Son, directed by Charles Evans, transforming Los Angeles into Mississippi for a film that later received Academy Award consideration. He later joined the original Tony Award-winning Broadway production of RENT as Assistant Costume Designer before receiving recognition at New York University for his Production Design on Goya Award winner Pablo Berger's thesis film Truth and Beauty. His commercial work included the Miller Beer campaign in Mexico, collaborating with Academy Award-winning cinematographers Emmanuel Lubezki and Rodrigo Prieto.

Mercado studied at Boston University, New York University, the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM), and L'Université de Grenoble. He later returned to New York University to earn a degree in the Business of Entertainment, developing Wings of Nino as his thesis project, part of his expanding 14 Stitches cinematic universe. He often describes his years within Richard Grant's Sound Factory community in New York as the experience that completed his artistic education. Inspired by that creative environment, he founded HOME (House of Mercado Entertainment) in 2004. Through HOME he developed productions across New York, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Las Vegas, including Wickedville at Studio 54 inside the MGM Grand, a vaudevillian interpretation of The Wizard of Oz.

A defining chapter of Mercado's career unfolded in the Dominican Republic through producer and director Juan Basanta. There he contributed to productions including Biodegradable, La Gunguna, Oro y Polvo, Reinbou, and El Proyeccionista, earning multiple La Silla and Iris Dominicana awards, as well as Platino Award nominations.

Mercado's breakthrough as a director came with Miente, recipient of the inaugural Havana Star Award for Best Director at the Havana Film Festival New York and Puerto Rico's official submission to the Academy Awards. The Hollywood Reporter praised the film, writing that it was "nearly every frame is a knockout." He has also served three times as a Fiction Jury member for the Havana Film Festival New York. His directing work includes the award-winning short film 204, produced by the Ricky Martin Foundation, and Quedé a la Orilla, an international short film directed remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mercado has presented master classes throughout Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, sharing his methodology of Character Development through Production Design, Costume Design, movement, and performance.

As of 2026, Mercado has completed the Production Design for Roselyn Sánchez's first feature film as director, Diario, Mujer y Café, where his work received Platino Awards consideration, and for Raúl Marchand Sánchez's feature film Noche Zero. He serves as Chief Director of Characters and Movement at 360 Worldwide Entertainment, leading the creative development of original characters for international live entertainment and immersive productions. His active development slate includes the 14 Stitches cinematic universe, Wings of Nino, the dramatic series Normandie, and the documentary series Young Forever: The Sound Factory Legend. In 2024, he was named an Ambassador of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York in recognition of his artistic achievements and contributions to Puerto Rican culture.

Through HOME (House of Mercado Entertainment), 360 Worldwide Entertainment, and La Vida es Arte, Mercado continues developing feature films, television series, documentaries, live productions, immersive experiences, and educational initiatives while mentoring the next generation of storytellers.

Biography updated: July 2026.
- IMDb mini biography by: Rafi Mercado