Carlie Guevara

Carlie Guevara is an American transgender actress born in 1993 who made a widely praised acting debut in the lead role of The Garden Left Behind (2019), directed by Flavio Alves. Cast in 2016 after auditioning on the strength of the script alone, Guevara plays Tina Carrera, an undocumented Mexican trans woman building a life in New York City alongside her grandmother. The production cast transgender performers in all of its transgender roles, Latinx performers in its Latinx roles, and Spanish-speaking performers in its bilingual roles — a set of casting commitments Guevara has said made the experience of her first professional acting job especially meaningful. The Garden Left Behind premiered at SXSW in 2019, where it won the festival's Audience Award, and Guevara's performance was widely singled out by critics as a breakout achievement. She has continued to speak about the importance of authentic casting for trans stories in American independent film.