Jasmin Cardenas is a Colombian-American award-winning bilingual storyteller, theater maker, actress, educator, and social activist. She uses teatro and play to create spaces where people can connect, tell their stories, and spark change. Inspired by El Teatro Campesino, Jasmin began using Theater of the Oppressed to devise original scenes with working people in the fight for workers’ rights, dramatically altering the course of her life.

Recognized for her arts and civic engagement work, Jasmin was awarded a 2020-2022 international LAB Fellowship by The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University. UNESCO and the International Theatre Institute (ITI) selected her as the 2022 U.S. Emergent Theater Artist for World Theater Day.

In 2023, Jasmin was awarded the USArtists International MidAtlantic Arts Grant to support her invitation to perform her newest solo show “DISPOSABLE” at the Mitambo Theater Festival in Harare, Zimbabwe, and to conduct additional touring and Master Classes in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In 2020, she added filmmaker to her skills when she produced her first short documentary film about essential workers, “Essential?…Tengo que Trabajar/I Have to Work,” which was screened at Collaboraction’s 2020 PeaceBOOK Festival and the 2021 Screening Scholarship Media Festival CAMRA. Recently awarded a solo commission by 1st Stage Theater in Tysons, Virginia, Jasmin is currently writing her newest solo play, “DISPOSABLE,” a documentary-style theater piece.

Winner of the 2018 Outstanding Storyteller ALTA Award, Jasmin was recognized by the Alliance of Latinx Theater Artists of Chicago. Her personal tales explore the uncomfortable truths found when growing up between cultures. She has been a featured teller at the Midland Storytelling Festival (Texas), Kansas City Storytelling Festival (Missouri), and the Evanston Storytelling Festival (Illinois). Jasmin’s national touring reached new heights when she was an Exchange Place Teller at the 2016 National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

One of the first two Latinas awarded the 2012 Race Bridges Storytelling Fellowship, Jasmin created two new social justice stories from her life, now available on her CD “My Brothers’ Keeper: Stories of Social Justice and Civic Responsibility.” She regularly tours her bilingual program “Cuentos from the Americas,” which highlights lesser-known folktales, myths, and legends from North, Central, and South America, with special attention to Colombian stories, as well as personal tales about being bi-cultural. As the Chicago Public Library Cuentos Aqui Teller, she had the privilege of working with Latino children and families as an early literacy specialist. Jasmin is also a 2nd Story performer and adores that tribe.

Her one-woman show, written and performed by Jasmin, is called “¿Niña Buena?”—a coming-of-age story highlighting the joys and challenges of being Latina y Americana. It has toured in the Midwest and to Puebla, Mexico, where it was included in the Susana Alexander International Theater Festival.

Jasmin is a professional actress working throughout Chicagoland’s vibrant theater community, last seen on stages across the city: Steppenwolf, Goodman, Urban Theater, Lifeline, Teatro Luna, and Adventure Stage Chicago. A proud SAG-AFTRA member, her TV credits include NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” Showtime’s “The CHI,” ABC’s “Betrayal,” and several independent films. She is proudly represented by Big Mouth Talent Inc.