Melissa Ashley Hernandez
July 25th, 2026
Ilia Isorelýs Paulino is best known for starring in the HBO Max series The Sex Lives of College Girls, from creator Mindy Kaling. She can also be seen as ‘Captain Alvida’ in Seasons 1 and 2 of the Netflix series One Piece. On the big screen, Ilia starred opposite Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg in the Netflix comedy Me Time, from writer/director John Hamburg; as well as the Netflix film Family Switch alongside Jennifer Garner. She can also be seen starring alongside Wanda Sykes in the live-action, animated hybrid Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie. Next up, Ilia will be seen in the Apple TV limited series Wild Things with Jude Law and Andrew Garfield. A graduate of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, Ilia got her start with a role in the Paramount+ film Queenpins, starring Kristen Bell. She is represented by SDB Partners, Authentic Talent and Literary Management and Hansen Jacobson.
To say only a few words about Ilia would be a disservice to the person she is. I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing this shining light of a human being for thirteen years now, and I count myself lucky to call her my friend. Throughout our seasons of friendship, I have watched her move through the world with a strong sense of justice, quick wit, relentless curiosity, and an intensely passionate heart. She has never been afraid of tough conversations, nor of answering difficult questions with candor.
When I reached out to ask if she’d be part of this issue, she said yes without hesitation. What followed wasn’t simply a conversation about being a Latina actress in Hollywood. It became a conversation about language, belonging, curiosity, and the ways identity continues to evolve throughout life. Again and again, Ilia resisted easy answers. Instead, she offered something more generous: the reminder that identity isn’t something we perform for others, but something we grow into with greater honesty over time.
(You can read our Ceiba issue here!)
Interview with Ilia Isorelýs Paulino
WILD WILLOW MAGAZINE: Since you began your career, did you ever feel like you had to become “less Latina” (or even “more Latina”) to fit into the industry?
ILIA ISORELÝS PAULINO: I think I’ve learned that the closer I get to who I actually am, the better my work gets. And the truth is, I’m Latina. Like… hella Latina. It’s not something I can turn up or turn down—it informs how I move through the world. So, it’s never really been about becoming less Latina or more Latina. It’s been about becoming more honest. And honestly? I don’t even love the phrase “fit into the industry.” I know what people mean when they say it, but… fuck trying to fit into the industry. I believe you make the space wherever you are, and if the work is truthful enough, the industry eventually comes to you.
WWM: Do you ever find yourself performing differently depending on the language you’re speaking?
IIP: Absolutely. Code-switching is real. It happens across languages, across cultures, across every part of life. The version of Ilia my mom gets is probably 90% Spanish. The version my sister gets is more of a mix. They’re all me, but different relationships unlock different parts of who I am. That’s what I love about language. It’s not just vocabulary—it’s a reflection of your inner world. No one person has complete access to every part of you, and I actually think that’s beautiful.
WWM: Has acting ever helped you reconnect with those parts of yourself, or does performing sometimes ask you to leave them behind?
IIP: I think of acting like painting. Every character is a canvas, and your job is to help paint a story that everyone involved agrees is truthful. There are colors I have access to because I’m Dominican. Sometimes those colors belong in the painting, sometimes they don’t. It doesn’t even have to be a Dominican character. There are lived experiences, gestures, instincts, ways of loving or surviving that come from my culture that can deepen a performance. The audience may never identify those moments as specifically Dominican. Context changes everything. But hopefully they’ll recognize them as deeply human.
WWM: Your heritage is something people often recognize first because you’re a visible Latina in Hollywood. But when you think about your Dominican identity, what part of it do you wish people talked about more?
IIP: I honestly wish we talked less about me and more about the ecosystem. The interesting conversations aren’t just about representation—they’re about the systems that shape representation. Racism. Colorism. Sexism. Classism. Power. I’m one person navigating an industry that existed long before me. I’m also a product of those structures. So I don’t think it’s my responsibility to represent every Dominican experience every time I play a character. But if my work can open the door to bigger conversations about those systems, that’s what excites me.
WWM: As you’ve built your career, have you found yourself protecting your identity from other people’s expectations of what a Latina actress should be?
IIP: The older I get, the less interested I am in protecting an idea of myself and the more interested I am in protecting my curiosity. People are always going to have expectations. They’ll want you to be “this kind” of Latina or “that kind” of Latina. But Latinas contain multitudes. My responsibility isn’t to meet other people’s expectations. It’s to keep becoming more myself.
WWM: Do you think your Latina identity influences the kinds of stories you’re drawn to, even when the characters themselves aren’t Latino?
IIP: Oh, absolutely. My Latina identity shapes who I am, so of course it shapes my taste. My taste buds aren’t going to react the same way to Raisin Bran as they do to a coconete. I grew up with coconetes. That’s part of my emotional vocabulary. The stories that move me, the humor I love, the families I understand, the contradictions I’m interested in—they’re all influenced by where I come from, even when the characters themselves aren’t Latino.
WWM: Which character have you played that you most relate to?
IIP: Probably Nina in The Seagull. On the surface she’s this classic ingénue, and at the time I hadn’t really gotten to play many ingénues. But underneath all of that, she’s just a girl trying to figure out love. And honestly… same. We’ve inherited so many strange ideas about love, especially when you grow up in a deeply religious environment where nobody really knows how to talk about sex—even though everyone obviously has feelings about it. Playing Nina let me reconnect with this incredibly hopeful, romantic part of myself. Turns out… my heart is such a little ingénue.
WWM: What’s a story about… maybe the Dominican experience, or the broader Latinx experience, that you’ve never seen told the way you’d like to tell it?
IIP: I have one. And nobody’s allowed to steal it! I’m obsessed with Medea, and one day I want to set it in the Dominican Republic.
That’s all I’m saying.
WWM: When you look back at the path that’s brought you here – from where you were born, to DeSales, to Yale, to NYC and Hollywood – what part of yourself are you most grateful you never let go of?
IIP: My appetite. I’ve always had a huge appetite. And I don’t just mean for food. I don’t really speak publicly about my relationship with my body very much, but I’ve done a lot of healing. Looking back, I think what was underneath so much of it was that I have an enormous appetite for life—for imagination, for feeling, for making things. Once I realized I could feed that hunger with art, everything changed. I remember thinking, “I should make work that feels the way cake tastes.” That’s still my compass. When a project satisfies me in that way—when it feels nourishing, joyful, expansive—I know I’m making the right thing. I’m grateful that I’ve healed my relationship with food without losing that appetite for life. I hope I never do.
A huge thank you to Ilia for making time for this interview! If you’d like to support her, you can follow her projects closely on Instagram.
Wild Willow Magazine 