Zulay Henao
Zulay Henao works in the part of the American industry nobody writes about: mid-budget genre films, straight-to-streaming thrillers, and the television of Tyler Perry. Her first screen work came in 2005, and the run since has been steady rather than starry, which is its own kind of achievement in a business that discards actors at this level constantly.
Television gave her the closest thing to a home. She was a regular on Love Thy Neighbor and then across the long run of If Loving You Is Wrong as Esperanza, a role that let her play the same woman through years of accumulating consequence, something film almost never offers. She also had a recurring part in the crime drama The Oath.
On film she is usually the one competent person in the room. Fighting cast her as Zulay Valez, close enough to her own name that the part reads as a calling card. Takers dropped her into a slick heist ensemble; Hostel: Part III and Grizzly Park are the horror entries; True Memoirs of an International Assassin and Beyond White Space are the high-concept programmers that streaming has kept alive. It is a filmography built on dependability, which is a harder skill than a credit list makes it look.
Movies (16)
- Hostel: Part III (2011)
- Takers (2010)
- Fighting (2009)
- Grand Isle (2019)
- S. Darko (2009)
- True Memoirs of an International Assassin (2016)
- Illegal Tender (2007)
- Dashing Through the Snow (2023)
- Grizzly Park (2008)
- The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 (2021)
- The Single Moms Club (2014)
- Meet the Blacks (2016)
- Feel The Noise (2007)
- Beyond White Space (2018)
- Grow House (2017)
- Boy Wonder (2010)
TV (4)
Where to start with Zulay Henao
The real body of work is Tyler Perry's If Loving You Is Wrong, where Esperanza gives her the most to do: melodrama played out over years, which rewards patience in a way none of the films here can.
For a film, Takers is the most entertaining, a heist picture with a stacked cast that moves fast enough to forgive itself. Fighting is the better performance and the more grounded film.
The Oath and Stumptown are the crime-television credits, and Stumptown in particular is worth your time on its own terms. Hostel: Part III is for horror completists only; it sits a long way below its predecessors. At the lighter end, Dashing Through the Snow is a Christmas comedy that does precisely what it promises.