Rafael Agustín

Rafael Agustín, CEO

Rafael was a writer on the award-winning The CW show, Jane The Virgin. He is a Sundance Fellow for his TV family comedy, Illegal, based on his life as a formerly undocumented American. Rafael co-created and co-starred in the national touring, award-winning autobiographical comedy, N*gger Wetb*ck Ch*nk, which received acclaim from the LA Times, New York Times, Denver Post, and won awards for its advancement of social justice in the arts.

Rafael is currently writing his comedic undocumented memoir, ILLEGALLY YOURS, for Grand Central Publishing with the same Executive Editor that did Mindy Kaling and Amy Schumer’s memoirs.

Rafael serves as CEO of the Latino Film Institute (LFI), where he oversees the Youth Cinema Project, their project based learning educational film program, the annual Los Angeles Latino international Film Festival (LALIFF), and LatinX in Animation. In 2018, LA Weekly named Rafael one of the fifty most essential people in Los Angeles. Also in 2018, the United Nations invited Rafael to speak at their 70th Anniversary Celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Thanks to the nomination by Congressman Joaquin Castro, in 2021, Rafael was appointed to the National Film Preservation Board at the Library of Congress.

Rafael received his BA and MA from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television, and is an alumnus of the CBS Diversity Comedy Showcase.