Ana Maria Defillo is a Caracas-born, Miami-raised, Dominican writer and producer. She was six years old when she learned the American Dream was complete BS. Her family had moved to Miami after Venezuela’s economy collapsed. Back home, they ran their own medical clinic but in the land of Cuban coffee and oppressive humidity, they struggled as part of the working class.

Her older siblings had grown up not wanting anything; she grew up stealing school supplies (for education!). Also at six, the older sister who raised her was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease. By the time Ana reached middle school, her sister was no longer lucid. Instead of turning to sex and drugs like a normal teenager, Ana joined an Evangelical Christian cult through college, but left after a fateful summer of missionary work in Sierra Leone.

She graduated just in time for another economy to collapse (the world) and moved to NYC. Her cynicism only grew as an AmeriCorps member at a corrupt nonprofit, a human rights graduate student in a conservative liberal school, and a woman of color in the white comedy scene. Now she’s in L.A spreading her gospel of cynicism to the world.