Gabriela Tagliavini is an award winning writer and director working with major production companies in the United States. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tagliavini came to the United States to receive her Masters in screenwriting from the American Film Institute, having already earned a Bachelors in film directing in Argentina. “I knew I wanted to be a film director when I was 10 years old. I thought back then that I wanted to win an Oscar,” Tagliavini recalls.

Tagliavini won the Best Director award through three international film festivals in 2001 with her directorial debut, The Woman Every Man Wants, also known as Perfect Lover, and her film Ladies’ Night broke out at #1 at the Mexican box office in 2002, winning three MTV Movie Awards Mexico. Tagliavini later worked with major production companies such as CNN, Disney, and Comedy Central, working as a writer, correspondent, and director.

Tagliavini had her sixth film How to Break Up With Your Douchebag, produced by Mexico’s Traziende Films, released in the United States by Tribe Releasing in 2017. Tagliavini feels like her film empowers women, remarking, “I think what I tried to do with this movie is show the women that that’s not the way to go. They should be independent. They can use their own brain.”

Tagliavini notes her close connection with NALIP, extending over various years, “I attended to all the conferences every year, I participated in panels, I go to any other events that they have.” She has served as a mentor through the NALIP, Women in Media Conference, where she met many young aspiring women searching for advise, “somebody asked me what is success, and I said it is the possibility to give back. I think mentoring is great, I think when you know something it is your responsibility to share that knowledge with others.”

Tagliavini encourages young Latinx content creators to never get discouraged, and keep working towards their projects, acknowledging that there are executives out there looking for the newest Latinx talent. “NALIP has helped me so much. I met an HBO executive at a NALIP conference, and then I pitched something and sold it years later. I just met a lot of interesting people at the conferences. You have to be a networker, it is who you know and who knows you.”

To Tagliavini, NALIP is the perfect example of inclusion, “NALIP is the only place that unifies Latinos. NALIP is inclusive of all the groups, from the student Latino to the establish Latino.”