Ela Velden Mexican Actress Known for Who Killed Sara?

Early life

Ela Velden was born Daniela Campos Reséndiz on 25 July 1992 in Querétaro, Mexico. She has a sister. Her first work came through modelling, which she began at thirteen, taking jobs in commercials, magazine editorials and runway shows while still a teenager. In 2010 she appeared in an advertising campaign for a Garnier hair-colour line, in which the singer Dulce María also took part.

At eighteen she left Querétaro for Mexico City. From 2011 to 2013 she trained at the Centro de Educación Artística, the acting school run by Televisa, and she performed in several school productions before completing the three-year programme in 2013. She chose her professional name after an attempt to register as an actress under her birth name was unsuccessful.

Career

Velden's first screen role came in 2013 in Gossip Girl: Acapulco, a Mexican series shot in Acapulco between January and May of that year. She had originally been cast as a character named Jenny Parra and even recorded a promotional trailer, but the part was recast and she joined the programme in a recurring role as Gaby. The series premiered on the subscription channel Golden Premier on 5 August 2013 and ended after one season.

She next appeared in Niñas Mal 2, a youth-oriented telenovela made for MTV Latin America, and took part in several episodes of the drama series Como dice el dicho during the spring and summer of 2014. That May she auditioned in Mexico City for Muchacha italiana viene a casarse, producer Pedro Damián's remake of a 1971 telenovela of the same name. Her participation was confirmed in August, and the role became her telenovela debut. She spent six months studying Italian beforehand so that she could play her character more convincingly. Filming began on 25 August 2014, and part of the cast, Velden among them, travelled to Maratea, Italy, to shoot scenes and promotional material for two weeks. Scenes for the finale were recorded in Maratea and Naples, and production was completed in mid-May 2015. The series ran on Canal de las Estrellas from 20 October 2014 to 21 June 2015.

In 2015 she also turned to the stage. She made her theatre debut on 28 May as Susana in the original drama Gélidas Caricias at Teatro en Corto in Mexico City, a run that lasted until late June. From July she appeared in El Profesor opposite Damián Alcázar at the Foro Cultural Chapultepec, and the cast toured Mexico briefly in August. In the autumn she joined the comedy Tenis, an adaptation of a successful Argentine play, which ran at La Teatrería from 17 September to 19 November. In November she also took a role in the second season of the telenovela A que no me dejas.

In May 2016 Damián announced her as the lead actress of his telenovela Despertar contigo, which premiered on Canal de las Estrellas on 8 August 2016 and reached viewers in the United States on Univision later that month. In 2020 she played Lupe in six episodes of the second season of the Netflix series Diablero. Another title associated with her is the series Who Killed Sara? (2021).

Recognition

For her work in Muchacha italiana viene a casarse, Velden received the TVyNovelas Award for Best Female Revelation, presented at a ceremony in Acapulco on 17 April 2016.

Personal life

Velden is a co-founder and co-owner of Ellas Cuatro, a media production agency led by women. In a 2024 interview with the Mexican entertainment press she discussed the environmental and social costs of fast fashion. She said she prefers secondhand clothing, known in Mexico as "ropa de paca", owns no designer pieces, and would like to open a stall to sell and donate her own clothes.