#144 | Kamala Lopez | Sesame Street to the ERA

Actress Kamala Lopez on Sesame Street, Yale, a long TV career, and her ten-year campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment. After a ten-year hiatus to get the Equal Rights Amendment ratified to the U.S. Constitution Kamala Lopez is back in the business with new episodes of Tim Robinson's "I Think You Should Leave, and "Interior Chinatown" filmed this past season. Over her long career, the award-winning bilingual actress has starred in over thirty-five feature films and seventy+ TV shows, across all genres (comedy/drama; film/TV). Born in New York City to a mother from Madras, India and a Venezuelan father, Lopez lived with her parents in Caracas until the age of fourteen, studying in British and American schools. While still in high school, and studying acting at Herbert Berghof Studio in Manhattan, Ms. Lopez was cast in CTW's "Sesame Street" as Mercedes, Maria's cousin, a role she portrayed for two seasons before she was accepted to Yale University where she majored in Theatre Studies and Philosophy. Some of the highlights of Ms. Lopez's extensive television career include: groundbreaking television like "It's Garry Shandling's Show", "Hill Street Blues" and the Amnesty International sponsored episode of "21 Jump St."; opposite Christine Lahti and Ruben Blades in "Crazy From The Heart"; opposite Glenn Close in Stones For Ibarra; hosting "Wired Science" with Chris Hardwicke for PBS. Recurring roles include on the hit NBC show "Medium" as attorney Kristine Romney; on Showtime's critically acclaimed series, "Resurrection Blvd." as artist Sulinda Serrano; as Lisa Vidal's sister, Connie, "The Division" as army nurse Susanna Lozada on "Tour of Duty" and as prostitute/informant Carlita the CBS series "The Handler." More than sixty episodic guest leads include "Hacks," "Mayans MC," "Black Jesus", "24", "Alias", "JAG," "Miami Vice" and "NYPD Blue" among many others. The Equal Rights Amendment: Kamala has been the Keynote or Featured Speaker in venues as disparate as the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, the United Nations, The National Arts Club, at the YaleWomen Global Conference and Stanford Law School. Kamala has appeared as herself on multiple television, radio and cable networks including NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, BBC, CNN, PBS, Telemundo, Univision, NPR, KPFK, WBAI, KIIS and many more. To learn more about Kamala: https://www.kamalalopez.com/ Chapters 0:00 Welcome Kamala Lopez 7:47 Family-run economies 18:09 Finding acting resources at 14 25:52 Back to film after college 36:08 Union rules abroad 41:15 Ryan's years in photojournalism 48:57 What counts as premium content 56:38 Brand and content conceived together 1:01:43 How TikTok pays creators 1:09:30 Writing feminist work in a misogynistic moment 1:14:41 Discovering women aren't equal under the law 1:22:20 Equal pay for work of equal value 1:27:30 Unleash everyone's ideas 1:32:42 How some Native American societies managed conflict 1:40:21 Older women on the streets 1:45:26 The Selective Service case 1:55:30 Trafficking and online exploitation 2:00:40 America's weapons economy 2:08:20 Finding guests through PR people 2:18:33 Hollywood and the administration 2:26:12 The DC fight goes on The Ryan Pyle Podcast is ad-free by choice. If you enjoy these conversations, you can buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ryanpyle Ryan's TV series are streaming around the world. Follow the Podcast X: https://x.com/RyanPylePodcast Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpylepodcast Follow Ryan Pyle YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ryanjpyle Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryanpyle X: https://x.com/RyanPyle Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpyle https://www.ryanpyle.com