Maria Canals-Barrera Flaunts Cuban Glamour and Talks Nickelodeon’s Dora Role | The Big Deal

In an all-new episode of The Big Deal, we’re thrilled to chat with the talented Maria Canals-Barrera! You might know her best as Theresa Russo from Wizards of Waverly Place, but her talent extends far beyond her most iconic role. From playing Connie Torres in the Camp Rock movies to voicing characters like Hawkgirl in Justice League, She-Hulk in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Sunset Boulevardez in The Proud Family, Maria’s versatility as an actress is truly remarkable.

Maria Canals-Barrera was born to Cuban parents of Spanish descent in Miami, Florida. From a young age, she was drawn to acting and pursued her passion through theater classes in high school. Her talent earned her a scholarship to the University of Miami, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts.

From Wizards of Waverly Place to Dora, Maria Canals-Barrera chats about her career on The Big Deal

In our interview, Maria opened up about the memories she has of her mother, who significantly influenced her and her life. “My mom was from Cuba, she is no longer with us,” she stated. “But she was a total glamorous person. She would get ready to go to the bodega. And she was a former pageant winner in 1957, in Holguin, Cuba. And I would watch her and she would be singing and happy. And her life wasn’t always easy. My dad wasn’t the best, easiest guy to get along with. But when she was getting ready, she was happy. And I watched her and absorbed the energy of getting ready and being a woman. And she would walk into the bodega and all the butchers would be like ‘Sarita, Sarita is here.’ I think I absorbed the joyfulness of getting ready. My friends would complain about wearing high heels and I’d be like ‘I kinda like it.’”

Maria also shared a funny childhood memory that highlighted her talent for doing impersonations. She recalled, “I have this sponge-like ability where if I watch something, I absorb it. I was a teenager and I remember watching a Cher concert on cable television, and I walked out to my parents’ bedroom and started singing like Cher.”

Maria’s career in theater started in her early years, with notable performances in productions like The Glass Menagerie and A Cradle of Sparrows. She also starred in the Spanish-language telenovela Marielena and had roles in various TV series during the 1990s, including 21 Jump Street, Murder, She Wrote, and Caroline in the City. Her first regular TV role came with the NBC sitcom The Tony Danza Show in 1997.

In 2011, she acted alongside Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy film Larry Crowne. Later, in 2014, Maria was cast in the ABC soap opera Members Only, but the show was canceled before it premiered. Later that year, she joined the cast of the ABC comedy series Cristela, playing Daniela Gonzales. More recently, she played the mother of Fernando Hernandez-Guerrero-Fernandez-Guerrero on the Netflix series Fuller House.

Maria garnered significant recognition among comic book fans for her role as Hawkgirl in the animated series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. She also voiced characters in Static Shock and Danny Phantom and played Mercedes “Meche” Colomar in the video game Grim Fandango. Her unique voice and extensive voice-acting work demonstrate her innate ability to bring animated characters to life.

Now, Maria voices the abuela in Nickelodeon’s Dora, a reboot of the groundbreaking series Dora the Explorer. She couldn’t hold back her excitement when talking about the role:

“Dora is such an iconic Latina character. Proudly Latina, proudly bilingual. She gets to be everything she is, which as a Latin-American person is so important because we are still put into these boxes. So I love that she’s continuing her legacy. And the grandmother is fun, she’s an adventurer herself. And that’s why Dora is like she is. But they didn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and take away the old-fashioned values of typical abuelas. She cooks and she climbs mountains. She sings, she dances and she explores the rainforest. She’s everything, she’s allowed to be everything. So even the grandmother character is not put in a box and I love it.”

From 2007 to 2012, Maria starred as Theresa Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place, becoming a familiar face to Disney Channel viewers. She reprised her role in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie and also appeared in the Camp Rock movies as Connie Torres.

Speaking of Wizards of Waverly Place fans, fans will be excited to learn that the show is getting a reboot. Selena Gomez will make a cameo in the first episode, and Maria will have a recurring role. She shared her enthusiasm about returning to the role that made her famous: “The family characters, myself, David DeLuise, we were invited back to the show as a recurring situation. The show is fantastic. It’s so good. The kids in the show are so good, just like with our show, and I think the fans are going to love it. I think they’re going to be very satisfied. Because it’s something new, and they also get to have us coming in and out, and I’m excited to be the abuela.”

Tune in to The Big Deal at LATV for our exclusive interview with Maria Canals-Barrera.

You can watch the episode on TV or at any time on the LATV+ app.