Karla Souza

Karla Susana Olivares Souza is a Mexican actress best known for her television and film performances. She gained international recognition for her roles as Laurel Castillo on the ABC legal drama series How to Get Away with Murder and as Marina Hayworth on the ABC sitcom Home Economics. In 2023, she won the International Emmy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Mariel Saenz in the television movie La Caída.

Souza was born in Mexico City, Mexico, on December 11, 1985, to a Mexican mother and a Chilean father. She lived in Aspen, Colorado, until she was eight years old, obtaining an American passport through her family's background in the United States. She pursued acting education at the Centro de Educación Artística in Mexico City and studied acting in France, where she toured with a professional theatre company. She turned down an offer to appear on the French reality show Star Academy after being accepted into London's Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in acting in 2008. During her London studies, she was awarded the CCP award as a promising actress. Following an acting intensive in Moscow, she returned to Mexico City at age 22 to begin her professional career.

Souza made her television debut in 2009 on the Mexican telenovela Verano de amor and subsequently starred in the Mexican sitcoms Los Héroes del Norte and La Clínica. Her early film appearances include From Prada to Nada, as well as the 2013 Mexican box office hits Nosotros los Nobles and Instructions Not Included. In 2014, she relocated to Los Angeles to pursue English-language roles.

After moving to Los Angeles, Souza was cast as law student Laurel Castillo as a series regular in How to Get Away with Murder, acting alongside Viola Davis. In 2021, she began starring as Marina in the sitcom Home Economics. Outside of acting, she appeared on the cover of Women's Health in February 2015 and delivered a TEDx talk titled "Sweet are the Fruits of Adversity" in León, Guanajuato, in March 2015, which became the most-viewed Spanish-language TEDx talk.

Souza married Marshall Trenkmann in May 2014, and the couple has three children. She is fluent in Spanish, English, and French.