Tijuana Ricks is a military brat born in small town Louisiana. She graduated from Wash U in St. Louis with a degree in Psychology and Performing Arts. She then earned an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama. A working actor for over 20 years, Tijuana’s often recognized as “that woman from that thing.” She’s appeared in films alongside stars like Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dustin Hoffman… all the Hoffmans! Tijuana’s also been on Broadway and has done over 100 episodes of TV, including Billions with Paul Giamatti, Tiny Beautiful Things with Kathryn Hahn, and Law and Order with every actor that has ever been.

 

Tijuana began directing and creating her own content in 2016 when she realized she had only worked with one black female director in her entire career. Since then, she has written, produced, and directed multiple award-winning short films and web series in both the comedy and drama genres. Her work has been shown at multiple Oscar Qualifying film festivals including the St. Louis Film Festival, SeriesFest, SoHo International Film Festival, DC Web Fest (Gold Award Winner – All Souls), Chicago Southland International Festival, Flickfair (Audience Award for Short Drama – All Souls web series), Die Seriale (Best Director and Best Drama Series nominee – All Souls), Portland Comedy Film Festival (Best Director Finalist – Make America Bake Again!) and New York Television Festival. She wrote, directed, and starred in web comedy The Corps, which screened at the 2021 Urbanworld Film Festival and the inaugural ABFF Comedy Festival. Her short horror anthology called Homecoming, is currently on the festival circuit. 

 

Tijuana was a finalist for the SeriesFest Shondaland! Women Directing Mentorship, selected for the Black Directors Advancement Initiative with AWD, a recipient of the Ryan Murphy Half Initiative Directing Mentorship, a 2023 WIF Directing Fellow, a National Parks Arts Foundation Fellow 2025, a 2026 AWD Rising Directing Fellow... along with lots of other cool stuff. 

 

She is a karaoke queen who can saber champagne like a boss. 🍾🗡️