LORLI VILLANUEVA

Lorli has been in Philippine theater, television and films for decades. 2017 marks her 50th year working professionally.  She was awarded Best Supporting Actress in 1972 at the Manila Film Festival and nominated numerous times for awards including at the First International Film Festival in the Philippines. She has done at least 50+ films during her career in Philippine cinema and was lead in half a dozen television shows aside from countless guest appearances in others. She went on to direct TV movies of historical and educational themes for commercial channels and the Department of Education. She directed the longest running daily soap opera in Philippine television, Flor de Luna, and ultimately put up her own production company, Tri-Media Productions, which was subsequently renamed Emmaus Productions. Emmaus was  considered one of the most active public relations, advertising, talent agency and production company in the Philippines in the 90’s. Lorli served as President and CEO of Tri-Media/Emmaus Productions, which produced numerous theater shows including educational print materials for schools as well as training programs for startup theater companies around the Philippines and abroad, such as Australia, Japan and Korea.  Her efforts were mostly under the sponsorship of the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts. 

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Lorli started her career in the theater as a founding member of the Philippine Educational Theater Association under the tutelage of Cecile Guidote Alvarez, who was the Commissioner of the National Commission for the Culture & the Arts and Executive Director of the International Theater Institute, in 1967, after completing an Integrated Arts Program with UNESCO.  She co-founded the Visual Artists Cooperative of the Philippines with Dean Jose Joya and the Kalinangan ng Lahi Theater Café with fellow artist, Joonee Gamboa, at the Araneta Center. Lorli also served as Chairman of the Board of Judges for the Palanca Literary Awards, considered the most prestigious literary award giving body in the Philippines.   

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Lorli is also a multi-awardee as an education administrator and educator and was recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by OZA for Humanitarian Causes Through The Arts. She was a Fulbright Scholar and graduated from Northern Illinois University where she briefly became an adjunct professor in the Communications Department.  She is a certified New York State teacher and conducted review classes for NY teachers looking to pass the state teachers exams for a good number of years.  Straight from college she taught at the prestigious Philippine Science High School and while working as a teacher in various schools and colleges in Manila, she was active in her other career as an artist.. Before migrating to the United States, Lorli was Dean for the Undergraduate Program at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasay and Professor at the Communications Department of the University of the Philippines.  Until recently, Lorli was the Deputy Chair of the Graduate Program for Education and Special Education as well as the International  Student Advisor at Touro College and University System here in New York City.