Episode Summary
NERDS!! This Episode, we sit down with the legendary Ingrid Oliu — the first-ever voice of Detective Renee Montoya in Batman: The Animated Series, and a powerhouse actress known for Stand and Deliver and Real Women Have Curves. From Boyle Heights to Nicaragua, to the halls of Gotham City, Ingrid shares her inspiring journey as a Latina in Hollywood, community activist, and trailblazer in animation history.
We talk Batman, tacos al pastor, Central American representation in Hollywood, her work alongside icons like Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, and what it was like to give voice to one of DC Comics’ most beloved Latina heroes.
It’s heartfelt, it’s nerdy, and it’s filled with Bat-Signal-sized laughs.
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⏰ Timestamps & Topics
00:00 – Intro: From East L.A. to Gotham City
00:49 – Growing Up Geeky: Adam West Batman… in Spanish?!
01:50 – Shared Roots: Nicaraguan pride and family history
05:00 – Activism & Community: Fighting for Boyle Heights
09:08 – The Acting Bug: Learning English through theater in Nicaragua
11:36 – Early Career & Stand and Deliver
13:25 – Almost in Flatliners with Kevin Bacon!
14:03 – Real Women Have Curves & working with Lupe Ontiveros
19:25 – Becoming Renee Montoya: Batman: The Animated Series
23:33 – Representing Latinas in Gotham
25:28 – Working with Andrea Romano, Mark Hamill, & Kevin Conroy
28:09 – Reflections on Career, Theater, and Future Projects
30:44 – Taco Talk: The correct answer is al pastor 🌮
32:25 – Advice for Young Actors (hint: have backup skills & patience)
35:55 – Montoya vs. The Question – Who wins?
36:02 – Upcoming Projects & Where to Find Ingrid
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🔑 Key Takeaways
• Latina Trailblazer: Ingrid Oliu was the first voice of Renee Montoya, a character created for Batman: The Animated Series and later integrated into DC Comics.
• Hollywood Representation: Her career in Stand and Deliver and Real Women Have Curves broke barriers for Latinas in film and TV.
• Community Activism: Beyond acting, Ingrid worked to protect and uplift Boyle Heights, shutting down brothels and drug houses with grassroots activism.
• Geeky Beginnings: Ingrid grew up watching Adam West’s Batman dubbed in Spanish while living in Nicaragua.
• Nerves Never Fade: Even after decades in the industry, Ingrid still gets nervous at auditions — and she’s totally okay with it.
• The Taco Test: If a restaurant can nail tacos al pastor, everything else is gold. Ingrid-approved. 🌮
• Advice to Aspiring Actors: Learn multiple skills, prepare for rejection, and stay kind — because today’s secretary could be tomorrow’s star.
⸻
📣 Call to Action
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• Leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review (we promise it helps more than Bat Shark Repellent).
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⸻
🔗 Links & Resources
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⸻
❓ Listener Questions
Got questions for our next guest? Want us to cover your favorite fandom? Drop us a DM or email us through the website. We might just feature your question on the next episode!
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Apple Podcast Tags:
Batman The Animated Series, Renee Montoya, Ingrid Oliu, Stand and Deliver, Real Women Have Curves, Latina Actors in Hollywood, Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill Joker, DC Comics, Batman Voice Actors, Comic Con Panels, Distance NERDing Podcast, Nerd Culture, Latinx Representation
00:00:00
Well, here we are. Nerds shine the Bat signal
00:00:02
because today's guest brought grit, heart, and history to
00:00:04
Gotham City and beyond in this episode of a.
00:00:07
Comic conversation. We had the absolute pleasure of
00:00:13
talking with the incredible Ingrid Olu, the very first voice
00:00:16
of Detective Renee Montoya and Batman the animated series part
00:00:19
of the iconic stand and deliver in a powerhouse in real women
00:00:23
have curves. We dive into her journey from
00:00:25
Boyle Heights to Nicaragua and back, how her community activism
00:00:28
shaped her artistry and what it means to give life to one of DC
00:00:31
S most groundbreaking Latina characters.
00:00:33
So grab your tacos al pastor, cue up those Batman the animated
00:00:37
series reruns and say it with us.
00:00:38
Mother the yours. It's time for a.
00:00:41
Comic Conversation. All right, we've got another one
00:00:47
I'm honored to bring to you today.
00:00:49
The next Comic Conversation guest, The one the only Ingrid
00:00:53
or Liu. Hello.
00:00:54
Hello. So happy to be here.
00:00:55
We've had a blast. Good show's been good so far for
00:00:58
you, yes. Awesome.
00:00:59
I'm enjoying Diane Pershing. Yes, I met her for the first
00:01:02
time and I hadn't seen Bobby Constanza in a lot of years, so
00:01:06
it's just been great to see him. Yeah, we, we, we talked with
00:01:09
Bobby two years ago live on stage.
00:01:12
OK. And that's kind of that was my
00:01:13
in with with all of you guys Was I caught stop came by saw Bobby
00:01:18
and say, oh, I gotta go say hi to Bobby Costanzo.
00:01:20
And then James is like, hey, do you want to interview anybody
00:01:22
else? Yeah.
00:01:23
Great. So we have a segment on our show
00:01:26
called Growing Up Geeky. What did you geek out on when
00:01:29
you were a kid? Adam West, Adam West, Adam West,
00:01:32
Batman and Robin. We also share that along from
00:01:34
the other thing that I'm gonna bring up here in a minute.
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Yeah, but I used. To watch Adam West in Spanish in
00:01:38
Nicaragua. Really.
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Yes, I can. Only I can imagine that Adam
00:01:43
West in Spanish sounds epic. He sounds the same.
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He does he the same thing like the how did Burt Ward sound in
00:01:48
Spanish. Very sweet, very sweet.
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Voice was very sweet. Yeah, the only thing so now
00:01:53
really I have to think is because I know they weren't
00:01:55
doing things like this back then, but like, imagine if they
00:01:57
would have had Cesar Romero play himself in Spanish.
00:02:00
So. I wonder who dubbed him?
00:02:01
Yeah, because now you have a Latino dubbing a Latino, so it's
00:02:04
like. But back then they had the same
00:02:06
dubbers from Mexico. They all dubbed every all the
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shows. Yeah.
00:02:10
So yeah. So all the voices were similar
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or familiar. Familiar, right?
00:02:14
So the work was very similar. Yeah, that's awesome.
00:02:17
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump into this.
00:02:19
So the thing that we share in common, right, because I was
00:02:21
telling you on the way off, Mike, that we had, we share
00:02:23
something in common. I have to start with this big
00:02:25
fact. We share this in common and it
00:02:26
makes me really proud. We're both Nicaraguanza.
00:02:29
Oh my God. Oh my God.
00:02:32
And of course, you're from the mission.
00:02:33
District. I'm from the Mission District.
00:02:34
Gloria is Nicaraguansi. Yeah, I'm Nicaraguansi.
00:02:37
So I mean like I, I grew up in the mission.
00:02:40
I am like I'm come from Nick and Nick I want them to say my mom
00:02:42
is from my now all my dad is from Messiah.
00:02:44
Oh my God, my mom is from my now one.
00:02:46
My dad is from my Tagalpa. Yeah, my Tagalpa right here.
00:02:48
This is all my Tagalpa room work.
00:02:50
Oh, I'm gonna have to research that.
00:02:52
Yeah, that is awesome. Yeah, I'm, I'm very, again, very
00:02:55
proud of and then Aztec on the bottom down here, but I'm very
00:02:57
proud. We're all related.
00:02:59
Exactly. This is where we're related is
00:03:00
we're all Aztec, right? We're all part of the nation,
00:03:02
yeah. That is awesome, right?
00:03:05
So I, I found that fun because I had to double check it when I
00:03:08
when I researched it, it said she grew up partially in
00:03:11
Nicaragua. I was like, wait, does that mean
00:03:12
she's Nicaraguan? Says like is she, is she from
00:03:14
Nicaragua? And I.
00:03:15
Said born in the USI was born in Boyle Heights baby right, but
00:03:19
went back and raised in. Nicaragua and then came back and
00:03:22
and I was just like, because there are people I have a Thea
00:03:25
that's technically Sauding and she grew up in Nicaragua, right.
00:03:28
So it's kind of like that's something that's that's I knew
00:03:31
that that happened where I was like, Oh yeah, she should be
00:03:34
what? That my tech.
00:03:35
I should be salarian, but I was is she actually Nikada Wentz?
00:03:37
And when I look it up, she's actually Nikada Wentz.
00:03:39
So like it got me excited. Yeah.
00:03:41
So I was like, oh, not only am I talking to another Latina
00:03:43
Latina, but also a fellow Nikada.
00:03:45
Wednesday and we do have, I have cousins throughout that are
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Salvadorian, that are Guatemalan, right.
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The Olu's came from Spain. They they stopped in Nicaragua.
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The other brother went to Cuba. So today we have relatives in
00:04:00
Cuba that we're in touch with through Facebook.
00:04:02
Right, Same thing. My last name is Ferray, which is
00:04:04
Basque. And it's, it's, you know, it's
00:04:06
very, very French, but. Oluis Catalan.
00:04:09
Right, right, right. It's been around 400 years
00:04:11
before Christ, right? The clan.
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Oh wow. But they were wet.
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I'm brown. Right, right.
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It all changed when. They look well, No, Nikas tend
00:04:20
to be white. We're all shades, right?
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We're all right, right, Right. My grandfather and we're getting
00:04:26
into a lot of lineage here. But my grandfather, he was a
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Spanish immigrant in Nicaragua and married a, an indigenous
00:04:33
woman. So I have that on my side.
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Yeah, my grandfather, my grandmother, married an
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Indigenous. She was from Ashkenazi.
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Oh, nice. And she married an Indigenous.
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And though most of my aunts and uncles, my mother was very
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Indigenous looking. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:04:49
When we, when we look up the lineage on my mom's side, you
00:04:51
know, there are a lot, a lot of indigenous on that side.
00:04:53
My mom's birth names, my mom was adopted, but my mom's birth name
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is a very indigenous name. Yeah.
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And and I that surprises because we found her her papers, her her
00:05:03
adoption papers and it has her original name on that.
00:05:05
And I was like, Oh my God, I can't even pronounce it.
00:05:07
It's like that, that indigenous. Yeah, cool.
00:05:09
It's really cool. So again, I was excited to see
00:05:11
that we have that in relation, right.
00:05:13
But kind of further going on that.
00:05:15
Have you found it challenging being a of Central American
00:05:17
descent in in Hollywood in general?
00:05:20
Nobody really ever knew that I was Central American at the
00:05:23
time. It wasn't, it wasn't a thing.
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I'm I always said I was from East LA, so it was almost like I
00:05:29
was always a Chicana, right when I was very young.
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I believe that Chicana meant that you were bilingual and I
00:05:34
said that you kind of power. Chic kind of power, right?
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So, but I went to school in East Lai after the Nicaragua.
00:05:43
We came, I came in 78 because of the war, right?
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And then I ended up going to public schools.
00:05:48
And I always lived in Boyle Heights.
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I always lived in East LA, just loved my hood.
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Yeah. And I bought my first home in
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the hood. Nobody does that.
00:05:57
They go away from the hood. But I came back and I bought a
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home in unincorporated ELAI was in a community activist.
00:06:05
I ran a meeting. I met with the sheriff's once a
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month. We closed down brothels, drug
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houses with Gloria Molina's help.
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Yeah. Loria Molina was my hero.
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That's awesome. I miss her.
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That's that's amazing going into like that tight, like that level
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of history. And we're going to get into this
00:06:20
more later, but I mean, like, that's got to be a way to
00:06:23
connect with the character with especially with with with
00:06:26
Officer Montoya. Oh, yeah.
00:06:27
Yeah. Like.
00:06:28
You know the people. Right.
00:06:29
It's, it's knowing kind of like that side of being a Latino and
00:06:32
law enforcement and everything like that, or at least working
00:06:34
with law enforcement in that in the ways that you did.
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Yes, I had a wonderful sheriff, but he retired.
00:06:39
But we did a lot. As a matter of fact, when I
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found out that there was a brothel down the street and it
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was a, the cover was a $0.99 store.
00:06:46
Uh huh. I called my priest and I said,
00:06:48
listen, I found out that this place is a brothel.
00:06:50
And he goes, Ingrid, the police have been trying to shut that
00:06:53
down for a very long time. They shut it down and six months
00:06:56
it's back. Well, to today there is no
00:06:58
brothel. We shut it down.
00:07:00
That's good. And it's, it's keeping the
00:07:02
neighborhood safe, yes. Exactly.
00:07:03
Laura Molina passed a bill that if you, the property owner, were
00:07:07
aware of what was going on in your property and you didn't do
00:07:10
anything about it, you lost that property.
00:07:12
So. So given with that given your
00:07:15
history in in being in LA and everything will come in coming
00:07:18
back from Nicaragua to to LA oh when the.
00:07:21
Coming from Nicaragua to LA in 78 was tough because we were,
00:07:27
when people would find out that you were Nicaraguan, especially
00:07:30
if they were Central American, man, they put you down.
00:07:33
They didn't want you here. They were like, get get out of
00:07:35
here. We don't want to.
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And I was like, I'm an American citizen, right, You know?
00:07:40
My mom made a point that when I was a kid and she would say, you
00:07:43
know what? You what you background.
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I would say Nicoise. I know you're Nicoise.
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American. Yeah.
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If you just make sure that people know that you're
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American, Yes. Yeah, very proud, yeah, to be an
00:07:50
American. I was very proud to be an
00:07:52
American in Nicaragua because I attended an American school.
00:07:55
So we were very proud Americans. So when I came here as a proud
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American, and I find that I'm a not a second class citizen, but
00:08:04
a third class citizen at the time, you know, it was Chicanos,
00:08:07
Central Americans, it was the Guatemalan Salvadorians, a lo
00:08:10
nikas last, right. The Nikas were better received
00:08:13
in Miami. Yeah, I have a lot of family in
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right in New York and Florida. Oh I have.
00:08:19
Most of my family is in Miami and half of it moved to
00:08:22
Australia. It's a big naked out.
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There's a big Nikka in population because they were
00:08:27
taken by a Catholic organization during the war.
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That's interesting. I didn't know that.
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I didn't know there was a lot of Nikka in, in, in.
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Well, you need earlier. Call them up and find out how
00:08:37
well educated they are because Australia has taken really good
00:08:40
care of these people. That's awesome, that.
00:08:42
Is amazing. Their education gave them a
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stipend. As long as you stay in school
00:08:47
and do good, they take care of you.
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That's amazing. I never knew that.
00:08:50
That's that's a good thing to know.
00:08:52
So jumping back into so you're back in the United States, one
00:08:55
of the acting book hit you like when did you decide I want to be
00:08:58
an actor, whether that start young or did you?
00:09:00
I was I was a clown since I was very young and my mother used to
00:09:05
say senior USA Savon de Ayun circle.
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For for those of you out there who don't speak Spanish, what
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she was saying, what she said is surge, you know where there's a
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circus because I have a clown and we need work.
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Needs to work. Yeah, that was my thing.
00:09:23
But what happened, I believe is that I had I came when I went to
00:09:27
Nicaragua when I was 3. So I forgot the any English I
00:09:31
knew. I'm sure I forgot.
00:09:32
And so we learned Spanish and then I have to relearn English
00:09:36
and I was in ESL for a very long time, right.
00:09:39
So I attended a private school where they taught us through
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theater, through music, through dance.
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So that's I think where the bug started to because we literally
00:09:48
were doing plays in English when we didn't speak the language
00:09:51
right. And but it was, it just put you
00:09:53
on the stage. So I believe that because I was
00:09:56
learning a language in second language through arts, somehow I
00:10:01
was always in plays. And we did a lot of the
00:10:03
performance at this Colegio Americano Nicaraguan, say
00:10:06
American Nicaraguan school. OK.
00:10:07
We did a lot of performance there and we would study
00:10:11
different cultures and countries and we would bring out their
00:10:14
music, cook their food and that's how we studied.
00:10:17
Right. You immerse yourself in culture,
00:10:19
right? That's beautiful.
00:10:20
So then I come here to the United States when I'm 15 and
00:10:23
I'm in school, and then they start to advertise the plays.
00:10:28
And somehow I'm like plays. I do this right?
00:10:31
And so I go, I audition. I get it.
00:10:34
And then a friend says, hey, you know what?
00:10:36
You should come with me to nosotros.
00:10:38
You know Nosotros organization. I've I've heard of it, but I've
00:10:41
never. But it's been around for a long
00:10:43
time, and it has truly helped actors.
00:10:45
No, it elevates actors. Yeah.
00:10:47
Yeah. And at the time, the president
00:10:50
of Nosotros was doing a lot for kids, so he advertised a lot and
00:10:54
people would come and see our classes right, OK, that were for
00:10:57
free. And we were on Wilton in
00:10:59
Hollywood. I was 15161718 right there all
00:11:03
those years every Saturday. And that's when I first I met
00:11:06
Ramon Menendez and Tom Muska. Oh nice, they were at.
00:11:09
AFI at the time, right? So I got to work with them on
00:11:12
their first film, which was a black and white titled
00:11:15
Californio. That it was never finished.
00:11:17
Five years later, their advertising, their casting
00:11:20
standing right. So I call I call up someone and
00:11:24
I'm like I need to get a hold Ramon.
00:11:25
And so I get his number. I call him and I'm on says look,
00:11:28
if you can pass for 18 by Malish audition, right?
00:11:31
And so we did, and the rest is history with that.
00:11:34
Right. And I mean, you've been involved
00:11:36
in so many major roles, major films, franchises like Standing
00:11:40
deliver. Standing Deliver.
00:11:41
Flatliners was another one that you were in.
00:11:43
That I wasn't in. What happened with Flatliners is
00:11:46
that I was cast but a week before I was supposed to shoot
00:11:49
Flatliners. And this is one of a great
00:11:53
regret because I should have, I should have performed in
00:11:56
Flatliners, but I became pregnant and Flatliners wasn't
00:12:00
paying very much and I had just booked a guest star on Fred
00:12:05
Dreyer's show. Right, I was looking at that
00:12:08
too. I can't remember the IT was the
00:12:10
most popular show on TV at that time.
00:12:13
Hunter, right? He was a cop hunter.
00:12:15
And so my agent did everything he could, talk to the casting
00:12:19
director, Malli Finn, and said, please, please, can you get her
00:12:23
out of this? Because they didn't want to
00:12:24
release me. They didn't want to release me.
00:12:26
And she's explaining to the director, a famous director that
00:12:30
I should have worked with, right, Instead of doing the
00:12:32
hunter right, I should have, but.
00:12:34
Flatliners became a runaway. See that runaway?
00:12:37
That's one of my favorite films, so I wish I would have worked.
00:12:41
That's my 6° of separation from Kevin Bacon because my scene
00:12:44
would have been with Kevin. Bacon.
00:12:46
Oh no. Yes.
00:12:48
Oh, man. So.
00:12:49
But it's all good, you know? Yeah, yeah.
00:12:50
And after that and. They're trying to revitalize
00:12:53
that that that franchise right now too.
00:12:54
So they're talking about redoing it again.
00:12:56
I'm. All go look the vote right but
00:12:58
yeah imagine that so stand and deliver nominated for an Oscar.
00:13:02
Edward James almost was fabulous and that and he deserved that
00:13:05
Oscar. And as far as I'm concerned,
00:13:07
it's his Yeah, real women have curves.
00:13:10
Yeah is another film was in. 2002 or two.
00:13:14
We shot it in 2000 and it came out in two, 2002.
00:13:17
Yeah, that was another great, great film.
00:13:21
And I was lucky because they took over a year to cast that
00:13:25
because it was. It's hard for them to find
00:13:27
chubby girls in Hollywood, right?
00:13:29
So they finally found me, thank God.
00:13:33
And I said they invited me, I read and they said would you
00:13:37
like to within this film? I said I'd love to.
00:13:39
And that's where I got to work. I had worked with Lupe Ontivedos
00:13:43
before. We had worked with Severo Perez
00:13:47
in Brother, a documentary about HIV.
00:13:51
It was a short on on HIV, but I love Lupin Ontiveros and I miss
00:13:55
her so much. You know, she passed away, yeah,
00:13:57
so many years ago from cancer. She is sorely missed.
00:14:00
Yeah, absolutely. So again, looking back on Stand
00:14:05
and Deliver, you know, there, there, there, it's, it's been
00:14:08
kind of a, a journey for Latinos in Hollywood and, and the
00:14:12
opportunities that Latinos get. You know, used to be, you had to
00:14:14
change your name if you wanted to go and be a, a big star and
00:14:17
stuff like that. Like now we're starting to get a
00:14:19
point where you can be proud, proud like, you know, Pedro
00:14:21
Pascal and, you know, a lot of the, the, some of the bigger
00:14:24
actors now are starting to be able to be proud of who they
00:14:27
are. What is kind of like your, your,
00:14:31
like, how you see, how have you seen and, and kind of have you
00:14:34
taken in Hollywood's change from, you know, the 50s?
00:14:37
I have to change my name Martin Sheen.
00:14:38
I have to change my name and not say that I'm Latino too.
00:14:41
I was a little I saw some of that coming in this in the late
00:14:46
70s, early 80s. I still knew and you know,
00:14:49
several friends that were light skinned that were able to change
00:14:52
their name and do American roles.
00:14:55
And then what was interesting is back when then when the Latino,
00:14:58
Latinos were up and coming, then they changed their names back.
00:15:05
So the, the funny part about that is that I never changed my
00:15:09
name. And my name being Ingrid Olu, I
00:15:11
would ask, they would ask me questions like, are you Latina?
00:15:15
Are you really Latina or are you pretending to be or do you
00:15:18
really speak Spanish? And I was supposed to be named
00:15:21
Juana after Joan of Arc. Oh, yeah.
00:15:24
OK. Mother.
00:15:24
Catholic mother. Yeah.
00:15:25
You know, so they're going to name you after a virgin.
00:15:28
And so my my aunt Kenny, that was a Chicana, said don't you
00:15:32
dare do that to your daughter. Why would you name her the most
00:15:35
common name in Nicaragua? Juana Juan Iguana.
00:15:38
Yeah. Jose Maria de Mexico.
00:15:41
Right. So she said, OK, so the actress
00:15:43
of Joan of Arc is Ingrid. Ingrid Bergman.
00:15:46
Yes. Yes.
00:15:46
So what about Ingrid? She said.
00:15:48
You know what? That's perfect.
00:15:49
So she named me Ingrid Fatima. Ingrid, Fatima.
00:15:53
I didn't get. Yeah, the amount of Fatima was
00:15:56
in my family as well as Seth Hill is a very common one.
00:16:00
But Fatima says. Yeah, yeah.
00:16:02
My one of my favorite cousins, her name is Fatima Fatih.
00:16:04
Yeah, we'll call it Fatih. Yeah.
00:16:06
Oh, yeah, my yes, yeah, I leave Fatima out.
00:16:12
So again, going more into the acting for Stand and Deliver,
00:16:16
was that your first onscreen that you did or?
00:16:19
No, no, I had done a few films already.
00:16:22
Yeah, no, I. Have do you remember your first
00:16:24
audition? Like, were you nervous the first
00:16:26
audition? Well, my first auditions were
00:16:28
four AFI. Yes, I was scared to death.
00:16:31
And as a matter of fact, I remember the first film that I
00:16:35
did for AFI, directed by Carlo Allen, and when I had seen it at
00:16:41
some point, I was not very good overacting.
00:16:46
But that was my first, and I was 16.
00:16:49
But auditioning was hard because we were competing against our
00:16:53
classmates. Yeah.
00:16:54
So it was, I remember for this film, it was a friend of mine,
00:16:59
and I were up against it and. But I got it.
00:17:01
And that was the beginning. And I did about four AFI films.
00:17:06
So I I still, I still get very nervous when I audition.
00:17:10
So being Nerbiosa, I am very nervous.
00:17:13
And it's OK, it's human. It is.
00:17:15
It is. You should, you should never go
00:17:18
into anything with no nerves because that just says that
00:17:21
you're inhuman at that point, right?
00:17:22
Like I, I'm nervous. I've, I've interviewed so many
00:17:24
people. I'm, I'm nervous every time I go
00:17:26
into an interview and then I relax one time in the interview,
00:17:29
right. So that's, you know, there's,
00:17:31
there's always a level of all, man, I don't want to mess this
00:17:34
up. I don't want to do this, You
00:17:35
know, I hope I do well, you know, and things like that.
00:17:37
And regardless of how well you are and how, how often you do
00:17:40
these things, you know, and I'm, I'm sure acting is 10 times
00:17:44
worse. Yeah.
00:17:45
And it doesn't go away. Yeah, it doesn't.
00:17:46
Yeah, absolutely not. I mean, you can hot.
00:17:48
You can act like it doesn't go away, but it does, or it doesn't
00:17:52
go away. You hold on.
00:17:53
To and I'm OK with it, yeah. It makes you feel human, yeah.
00:17:57
All right, so I feel. So let's let's jump into Renee
00:18:00
Montoya. I kind of mentioned her earlier,
00:18:02
but Renee Montoya is one of the only VO credits that you have
00:18:05
when we start looking up the credits and everything, was the
00:18:08
audition standard for Renee Montoya or did they, did you get
00:18:12
called in for Renee Montoya? They were looking for Renee
00:18:15
Montoya. But at the time I remember, and
00:18:18
I believe that the reason I believed I had gotten the role
00:18:22
was because they wanted a neutral Spanish.
00:18:25
And at the time I did not have comics.
00:18:28
I hadn't done worked on animation, but I had worked for
00:18:32
the radio. We had done a lot of
00:18:34
commercials. And for a while I was the voice
00:18:36
of Sears in Spanish, right? Work in Sears, Sudinevale,
00:18:40
Buchi, Muchas, Cosas Mas. I'm not going to say I've never
00:18:44
heard that. I I just remember commercials
00:18:46
growing up and, you know, my parents watching TV.
00:18:48
The radio was. Always good for us to do
00:18:52
commercials. So I'm, it helped me make money.
00:18:54
And I remember when I had my first child, she was covered by
00:18:57
AFTRA first, which was radio and then SAG.
00:19:00
So I was proud to, to know that I was working enough to be
00:19:04
covered, you know, have insurance and take care of my,
00:19:08
my daughter. But that's not an all.
00:19:10
I mean, most of the time we are without insurance, right?
00:19:13
And now it's. Worse, especially as a working
00:19:15
actor. Yes, yeah, we don't.
00:19:17
What has helped is auditioning from home because before we were
00:19:20
spending a lot of gas, paying parking and now we do it from
00:19:24
home. One second you have like guys,
00:19:26
please, why are they in here? No, but so we're talking about
00:19:33
insurance basically. And oh, your first child, Well.
00:19:36
Yes. And I have to say that I have
00:19:38
been very lucky to work because, yeah, Latinos aren't often work,
00:19:42
but I was just, I just got some great jobs, right?
00:19:45
You know, and maybe at the right place at the right time, really
00:19:49
good representation. But I was fortunate, right?
00:19:52
But the fact that I was Central American never came to play
00:19:55
because I grew up in East LA, right?
00:19:57
And for me, I always said I'm from the hood, right?
00:20:00
I'm still from the hood. You're essentially a local at
00:20:02
that point. Like it's like, no, I'm from LA.
00:20:03
From East LA, right? Exactly.
00:20:05
I think wise, I love Boyle Heights.
00:20:07
Yeah. You know, I love the fact that I
00:20:08
would walk down Boyle Heights at Brooklyn Ave. where there was
00:20:12
still a bagel shop. Right.
00:20:13
Imagine you know. And it's funny because like I
00:20:16
hear anytime I hear, you know, I'm from, I'm from ELAI always
00:20:19
think of Cheech Marin, like, like I always think of that.
00:20:24
That's like the first line that comes in my head every time.
00:20:26
Yes. So it's Boyle Heights, Yes.
00:20:28
And very proud. I love it, yeah.
00:20:30
Love the community there. That's.
00:20:32
Awesome. It's, it's, it's, it's amazing
00:20:33
again that you're still part of the community and you still, you
00:20:37
know, you, are you still involved in the community now?
00:20:39
I'm not the last. We did move from the church, but
00:20:43
all I have are my friends. So on Facebook we're all over
00:20:47
all my friends that I still have in East LA.
00:20:49
But no, no, I'm married a green girl, so I'm in South Pasadena
00:20:52
now. No, I say that with.
00:20:56
Love, you say that with love. So jumping back into Renee
00:20:59
Montoya. So what was the what was your
00:21:02
experience in in play act playing that character,
00:21:04
especially over a few seasons? Also, because she's had such an
00:21:08
influence and then such an impact in the zeitgeist as her
00:21:11
character. She's gone on to be in the
00:21:13
comics, and now they've had multiple live action versions of
00:21:16
her, you know, and she was made for the show.
00:21:20
Yeah. So knowing that you were the
00:21:21
first person to ever play that. Character.
00:21:23
It's an honor, right, that I'm just giddy over the fact that I
00:21:26
can travel and meet so many fans that just you were the first,
00:21:32
you know, you were the first Montoya, and they all remember
00:21:36
my lines. And what's most interesting is a
00:21:39
lot of them love the Spanish, the very little Spanish that we
00:21:42
used. They come and they tell you the
00:21:44
words. It's it's funny because anytime
00:21:47
Renee came on the show, that was always something that was a big
00:21:50
deal to me. He's like, OK, her name is Renee
00:21:51
Montoya. She's Latina.
00:21:52
But, you know, did they cast somebody who a Latina in the in
00:21:56
the role? Because I always felt like, OK,
00:21:58
well, you know, especially like with things like that, you're
00:22:00
not always going to cast a Latino for, for, for, for the
00:22:02
role. And then the very few times that
00:22:04
you would make like deliver lines in Spanish, she was like,
00:22:06
oh, no, she's Latina. Yeah, right there.
00:22:07
And that gave me almost like a sense of pride to know that
00:22:10
there is a Latina playing a Latina on on the show, even
00:22:12
though it's animated and you don't know who it is.
00:22:14
Yeah, it's. It Oh no, they wanted they she
00:22:17
had to be Latina and she had to speak fluent Spanish yes without
00:22:21
an accent right, but they wanted it to be neutral so you wouldn't
00:22:24
know where you so you couldn't claim her right you know which
00:22:26
is cool right, which is cool and.
00:22:29
That's, that's the way I try to conduct myself.
00:22:31
I try to be neutral in both languages, you know, and that
00:22:33
way and you know, I'm Latino, but at the same time I'm, I'm
00:22:35
American. I'm American, right?
00:22:37
I had a young man come up to me today and he said Madre de Dios,
00:22:41
that was one of her lines. Right.
00:22:45
So when you when when you first started playing Renee, did you
00:22:49
know like almost like sometimes, you know, when you when you look
00:22:52
at a role, you look at some of the lines, you know this, this
00:22:54
person is going to be big. Did you know that Renee was
00:22:56
going to become what she became? No, not at all.
00:22:59
And if anything, I was very, you know, I was new.
00:23:02
I was very green to this, but our casting director and the
00:23:07
person that directed many of the episodes, Andrea Romano, was.
00:23:10
Awesome legendary. Just she was very caring and
00:23:13
just very gentle and, and guided us, right.
00:23:16
She definitely guided me. I needed that.
00:23:18
And I was in awe. Dude, I was sitting next to Mark
00:23:21
Hamill. Are you kidding me?
00:23:23
Are you kidding? Mark Hamill's my joker.
00:23:25
Mark Hamill's My Joker. And he's just yes.
00:23:27
Yeah. Perfect.
00:23:28
Yeah, perfect. Yeah.
00:23:30
Everyone was. Yeah, Mark and Kevin are the
00:23:32
voices that pop in my head when I, when I read my comment comic
00:23:35
books. Like anytime I read a comic
00:23:36
book, Mark and Kevin are the ones that pop in my head.
00:23:38
Yeah. Yeah, Kevin Conroy.
00:23:39
May he rest in peace. Rest in peace, Kevin.
00:23:41
Yeah, he he that man defined Batman everything just because
00:23:46
I've, I've always said this and we, we have these debates on our
00:23:49
show, but like, you know, who's the best Batman?
00:23:51
I'll say, well, are we seeing just live action or can I say
00:23:53
every any version because Kevin Conroy is my Batman, right?
00:23:57
Kevin Conroy is was the first person to realize that Batman is
00:24:01
who the character is and Bruce Wayne is the mask, right?
00:24:04
And Kevin until recently was the only one that changed his voice
00:24:09
for Bruce Wayne and kept his regular voice as Batman, right?
00:24:12
And he explains it in in another interview or he he explained it
00:24:16
and said because Bruce is the mask.
00:24:18
Bruce is who he's hiding from. Bruce is not who he is or as
00:24:22
Batman is who he is. That's why he used his voice as
00:24:25
Batman and he pitched it up for Bruce Wayne.
00:24:26
Wow. Yeah.
00:24:28
And I just that that level of just masterful acting was
00:24:31
something that I appreciated about Kevin.
00:24:33
That's beautiful. Yeah.
00:24:35
So given you know all of your experiences and everything that
00:24:39
that you've gone through in your in your experience and acting
00:24:42
everything like that, have you seen yourself change going down
00:24:46
the road? Do you recognize any changes in
00:24:48
yourself and when you started to to now like any notable changes
00:24:52
in yourself? No.
00:24:54
Ask me again, not in tiendo. So what I'm asking is from when
00:24:57
you first started acting to to now, right?
00:25:00
Have you noticed any significant changes in yourself from when
00:25:04
you first started acting to where you are now career wise
00:25:06
like? Yeah, yeah.
00:25:07
No, I just feel more in control because when you start off
00:25:11
you're, you know, you're very nervous and there are a lot of
00:25:15
unknowns. But once now I'm 62, I'll be 62
00:25:19
soon. I'm very relaxed in my skin.
00:25:22
I still get nervous, but I feel, umm, I've had a nice career, you
00:25:26
know, I've had a nice career and as a mother raising my child,
00:25:30
she's just started her third year in college.
00:25:32
Nice. I'm just stepping back and
00:25:34
enjoying. Just when I come here and I meet
00:25:37
so many people, it's just, you know, you've arrived.
00:25:40
You did well, you did well. And now I would like, I would
00:25:43
love to do just do theater. Oh man, and have you not been on
00:25:47
stage work before? Done a lot of stage.
00:25:49
You've done a lot of stage. Work for free, right?
00:25:51
We've done some incredible plays at Casa 01/01 in Boyle Heights.
00:25:55
Please visit the theater. We have electrical right now.
00:25:59
Great theater founded by Josefina Lopez.
00:26:01
Oh yes, I did many plays there. We did one.
00:26:04
We produced it twice. It was so good.
00:26:06
Clean start. We had Bahitas going in going,
00:26:09
oh, this was like a real professional production where
00:26:12
and you start like they were like, this is so professional.
00:26:15
I mean that is professional. Wait a SEC.
00:26:17
With real actors, yes. So they're like touched, 'cause
00:26:21
it's not, not the Pantages. We're in Boyle Heights and wow.
00:26:25
Right. Yeah.
00:26:25
So no, no, I did a real woman have curves at the Padua.
00:26:29
No, not Padua. Pasadena Playhouse.
00:26:32
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And yeah, but this, this theatre
00:26:35
doesn't pay. There are very good many
00:26:37
opportunities, but I'll do it for free.
00:26:39
I'd love to do Shakespeare, but I've learned the.
00:26:41
Love of it. Yeah, yes, yes, yeah.
00:26:43
And I mean, you've, you've technically done a Shakespearean
00:26:45
role. If you look at the way that that
00:26:48
Batman, the anime, so it was written, that was very
00:26:50
Shakespearean, yes. Yeah.
00:26:51
The way that they wrote the characters.
00:26:53
They were supposed to write her in a lot, lot more and they
00:26:56
didn't, so yeah. Yeah, well, like I said, she she
00:26:58
got expanded on a lot more later.
00:27:00
She'd be she she at this point, she's a fan favorite for a lot
00:27:02
of people. So Oh yeah, her name, Montoya is
00:27:04
a big he's. Had a huge following.
00:27:06
I had a very huge gay following. Yes, a lot of ladies that give
00:27:11
me a lot of love. And it's deserved.
00:27:14
It's deserved. The performance was great and
00:27:16
the character was written very well.
00:27:17
So my, my, my applause to you for, for, for giving us that
00:27:22
character, even though again, you, you performing the
00:27:24
character and giving us a tangible version of the
00:27:26
character. Thank.
00:27:27
You so we appreciate that. As fans, we appreciate that.
00:27:30
So we're going to jump into some wrap up questions here.
00:27:32
Sure. So I'm going to ask you the
00:27:33
hardest question as a Latino, the hardest question you're ever
00:27:35
going to be asked in your life. OK, unless you know the correct
00:27:38
answer, because there is a correct answer to that.
00:27:39
What is your favorite kind of Taco?
00:27:42
Al Pastor. And that's the correct answer.
00:27:44
High five, really, that's the correct answer.
00:27:47
So I talked to a lot of chefs and things like that.
00:27:50
They say that the litmus test for a Taco or for for how good a
00:27:55
restaurant is, is al pastor. If you go into any Mexican or
00:27:59
any restaurant that has tacos, get Alpha store because if the
00:28:03
Alpha store is good, everything in that restaurant is going to.
00:28:05
Be good. Well, I need to show you.
00:28:07
Which is also my favorite Alpha store is my go to number one for
00:28:11
everything. Yeah.
00:28:11
Are you? Running out of.
00:28:12
Time. No, no, you're fine.
00:28:14
I just took my best friend Friday night.
00:28:17
I took her to the best. I was my store, which is
00:28:20
Figueroa and you're you're in Highland Park.
00:28:23
OK, Ace. So ace the.
00:28:25
Best Yes, Yes, ma'am. Right off the thing.
00:28:28
Do you know if they're open tonight?
00:28:29
Because that might be where we go to dinner. $3 tacos.
00:28:31
Oh, that's where we're going tonight, Holozama.
00:28:33
York and there's no name, they're all out on the This used
00:28:37
to be a $0.99 store that was closed, so the parking lot is
00:28:40
always empty so everyone is parked here and there's
00:28:44
incredible pasta right here, $15.00 that's cash.
00:28:47
OK, they say credit cards the the pasta guy is excellent, but
00:28:51
he doesn't take. Part OK, I think we're all in
00:28:53
York. Yes, OK, it's Salamel said.
00:28:55
Where we're going tonight. Dad, where you want.
00:28:57
To what's some quick advice that you might have for anyone trying
00:29:00
to get into the industry? Just like something that you
00:29:03
wish you would have known when you were, when you were up and
00:29:05
coming. I just say always, I always had
00:29:07
two or three jobs. So if you, if you don't, if
00:29:11
you're not prepared, if you don't have any skills, get them
00:29:14
before you do anything because you always will have need
00:29:17
something to back you up because you're not going to make money
00:29:20
for a long time. Yeah, you know, it's very rare.
00:29:23
It's like the Lotto and it takes a very long time before you make
00:29:26
money. Gotcha.
00:29:26
Like you got to get in the union and everything.
00:29:28
That's very expensive, dude. This is an expensive career and
00:29:33
you're going to take a lot of rejection, so you need to be
00:29:36
strong, right? And I always say that it's good
00:29:38
to be. You don't have to be religious,
00:29:40
but be spiritual because it's going to help you, right?
00:29:42
You really need it, right? But always have learn, go to
00:29:46
school, stay in school, educate yourself, go to college if you
00:29:49
can, or just learn a skill, learn a skill, learn a few
00:29:52
skills, right? Because they're always going to
00:29:54
help you, right? And just be patient and be
00:29:56
respectful because you never know where this that secretary
00:29:59
that you were just mean to, you never know if she's going to be
00:30:02
directing. That's right.
00:30:03
We never know, OK, if she's going to be a star.
00:30:04
So just be kind, especially today.
00:30:06
Let's be kind to each other. Let's respect each other, right?
00:30:10
Let's love each other. We're better.
00:30:12
We're Americans, and we're better than.
00:30:14
Right. Treat everybody with respect,
00:30:16
because respect. Everybody.
00:30:17
With respect to get respect, that has to be has to be given
00:30:20
as well. So I'm going to ask you another
00:30:22
hard question here, OK. And this is more hypothetical
00:30:24
here, right? Because this is not a version of
00:30:26
the character that you've played, but Victoria Sage, who
00:30:30
is the original question, gets in a fight with Renee Montoya.
00:30:33
The current question, who wins in a fight?
00:30:35
Montoya. Montoya, she's a better fighter
00:30:37
overall. Like the thing about Victoria is
00:30:40
he's very smart and even though he's like the Super conspiracy
00:30:43
theorist, but like he's very smart.
00:30:45
He's he can fight, but Montoya has way more St. smarts than
00:30:48
than than Victoria Sage does. You have I'm sorry, I keep.
00:30:51
Did you see the Altieri just gave me a picture.
00:30:55
He just drew something for me. Was it the one I saw on your
00:30:58
table? I think it was, yes.
00:30:59
The muscle, yes. Yes, that's all I said, because
00:31:03
I said, why did you make her the skinny?
00:31:05
The skinny Rena Montoya we started, She was a skinny she.
00:31:08
Was super skinny, right? Yeah, and he had made her all
00:31:10
muscles. And they said no, no, no, no,
00:31:12
no, don't do this. And I'm like, why is she?
00:31:13
I said this is a real woman. Right, right here, right.
00:31:17
So then. Yeah, so then he drew her.
00:31:20
He's like, no, this is what I wanted.
00:31:22
This is what Warner Brother wanted.
00:31:23
I wanted this and. So that's how he's doing.
00:31:25
He's doing a new book on her right?
00:31:27
OK. Right, she.
00:31:28
And then she looks. Yeah, like this, she's so much
00:31:31
more formidable and. And, and in that way, she she
00:31:35
was already intimidating. And I think, again, a lot of
00:31:37
that was your voice because you gave her this kind of like this
00:31:39
sense of power, right. But like, drawn like this.
00:31:42
Yeah. No, you're not messing with her
00:31:43
at all. No.
00:31:44
And I, I have always felt that I was strong, and that has a lot
00:31:47
to do with my mother, Berta Morales.
00:31:49
She was a badass ahead of her time.
00:31:52
I love you. Rest in peace, rest in peace.
00:31:54
So what's next for you? Do you have any any shows coming
00:31:56
up on the projects that are not under NDA?
00:31:59
No, I have a few shorts coming out.
00:32:01
I'm Paro and Lucy are is the one that I just finished with an
00:32:05
incredible director, Al Fernandez.
00:32:09
He's from the Dominican Republic.
00:32:10
He graduated from Harvard, OK. And he is writing some beautiful
00:32:15
stuff, very poetic. So Ete Dominicano is going to do
00:32:20
a lot. So I'll be posting stuff, yeah.
00:32:24
And scenes from it. But I've been doing a lot of
00:32:27
shorts, OK. I've been doing a lot of shorts
00:32:29
that are going to be coming out. I have one in Netflix coming out
00:32:32
next year called Peracito de Carne.
00:32:34
And it's about aphasia front temporal, which is what Bruce
00:32:39
Willis has, right? And it's really because we need
00:32:41
to get, we need to get the word out, especially for Latinos.
00:32:44
This is happening a lot for Latinos.
00:32:45
So we need to educate ourselves. Right, right.
00:32:47
Just they need to have more awareness about the things that
00:32:50
are playing. And yes, and go, please be
00:32:51
tested, right? It's coming out a lot in
00:32:53
Latinos, yeah. Well, the other thing is, you
00:32:55
know, we come from a very macho society and Latinos are, you
00:32:58
know, I don't go to the hospital unless I'm dying, right?
00:33:00
So like, yeah, it's definitely something that I advocate for
00:33:03
that, hey, you know, don't don't let things happen.
00:33:06
And then just go when you're dying, like go get checked,
00:33:08
checked up. Like, you know, go see the if
00:33:09
you can go see the doctor and and, you know, just get a bill
00:33:12
of health. Just know that you're doing OK.
00:33:14
Yes, you have to go and turn yourself.
00:33:16
Don't wait till you're dying. Right, exactly.
00:33:18
Because again, that's the problem in in our community is
00:33:20
we, we don't, we don't go to the doctor until we're already
00:33:22
dying. So, yeah, so where can everybody
00:33:25
find you? Where can everybody learn more
00:33:26
about you? Social media, websites, anything
00:33:28
that you want to kind of push out there.
00:33:30
You can find me on Facebook, Ingrid Olu and I'm on Instagram
00:33:35
TikTok but Facebook is is where I post more.
00:33:39
I'm OG guys. TikTok is very hard for me to
00:33:43
control. We're trying to expand ours more
00:33:46
too. Like my soldiers help me.
00:33:47
No, I'm just like this goes too fast.
00:33:50
But it grows the audience pretty, pretty crazily so.
00:33:52
Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:53
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank Ingrid Oleo
00:33:56
for spending some time with us here.
00:33:59
As always, ladies and gentlemen, thanks.
00:34:01
And keep nerding together. We'll see you on the next one.
00:34:03
Well we hope you enjoyed this weeks comic conversation.
00:34:09
This was the production of the Distance Nerding podcast and
00:34:11
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00:34:17
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00:34:25
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