Google Risa Mara Machuca and you will find her many talents, starting with  being roller skating limbo champion at Skaters World at age 11. You’ll discover she’s a bilingual, independent writer, director, actor, and producer whom has won local and international awards for her short films “Shortstop” and ‘Asi Es’.  There is a long list of accomplishments to date, and she’s just getting started.

Born in Long Island and raised traveling back and forth from Liberty, NY and San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico, Risa has always been drawn to the movies.  She is the go to person for all that know her to name that actor in that movie with what’s his name.  Her years of employment at the famed Boob Tube in Liberty certainly helped to broaden her movie knowledge. 

What you won’t find on Google is Risa’s fervor for life.  In 1996, with the hopes of getting into the business Risa started in San Francisco with an internship for Virgin Records as well as an internship at production company ?UC is ?UGET.  She worked hard with enthusiasm that is second to none.  An up and coming director at the time, Chris Robinson saw and felt the energy that Risa brings to projects and asked her to join him in his own venture, Robot Films.  It was there that Risa’s talents got to shine.  During her tenure with Robot, she was able to work as a ghost writer as well as a second unit director on videos for artists such as Jay-Z, Pharrell, Jill Scott, Mary J Blige, and many others.

Risa had a hand in the making of many music videos during the height of TRL days with artists from Snoop Dogg, Carlos Santana and Alicia Keys to name a few.  She’s also directed music videos for Jenni Rivera, Brenda Russell and Michael Bolton.  Latina Magazine named Machuca one of the new power players in the entertainment industry back in 2005.  Family situations led Risa back to Mexico a few years later and life took an unexpected direction, but Risa’s dreams and passions for the creative world stayed alive…including her passion for surf.

In 2010, while living in Mexico, Risa joined the competitive surf world and became a State and then National longboard champion where she went on to participate in various international surf competitions. In 2013 Risa won a bronze and copper medals at the ISA worlds with team Mexico and has represented Mexico at the Panamericans several times…most recently the Olympic qualifier in 2019 when surfing finally became an Olympic sport!

In 2014, certified and fortified by the surf life, Risa started her own surf school called Surf It Out and has been running it successfully to the day.  You can find her 5 star reviews all over the web and all through the Sayulita community.

In 2015, Risa took on the role of Film Curator for Festival Sayulita where she created eclectic programs that spanned from all parts of the world.  Festival Sayulita soon became known as Mexico’s SXSW!

In 2017, Risa created Mar y Vida, a free surf camp for underprivileged yet academically successful local children from Sayulita.  Giving back to her community is super important.  The Mar y Vida program is fully funded by local donors and runs for a week every summer!

In 2018, Risa started to run Surf Your Soul, a woman’s surf retreat which has alumni’s returning year after year.

This past 2022, Risa hosted her first father/daughter surf retreat and already has a waitlist for 2023!

Risa’s latest endeavor is Belle Curves, an inclusive swimwear line made for active women with curves, recently highlighted in Outdoor Magazine.  Inspired to help spread body positivity and inclusion, Belle Curves is making a big splash within a year of its inception.  Belle Curves has most recently teamed up with Salesforce for their YouTube series Connections and will soon have product available via Salesforce platform.

Next up is a feature in a book called ‘Women Making Waves’ which will be released in June, 2022 via Penguin Random House.  Being the light she is, Risa made the back cover.

Risa continues to write and create.  Her dreams strive on as she still hopes to make ‘Asi Es’ the feature, ‘Chicas del Surf’ a documentary highlighting Latina surfers, and ‘Super Chicas’, an animated series about three pre teen super heroes emanating the power of she.