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Drama Desk-winning puppeteer James Ortiz will receive the Artistic Excellence Impact Award from The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) for his voice performance and puppetry as ‘Rocky’ in the film Project Hail Mary. The award celebrates his artistry and his pioneering contributions to performance and puppetry.
Ortiz, who serves as both the performer and voice for the creature, has had a storied career on the stage, including designing Milky White in the 2022 Broadway revival of Into the Woods and the dinosaur puppets in Lincoln Center’s The Skin of Our Teeth.
He will be presented with the award at the Impact Awards Gala taking place on Friday, April 24, 2026, at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. The evening will be hosted by comedians Chris Estrada and Frankie Quiñones.
Other 2026 nominees include the Apple TV comedy The Studio, actress Belissa Escobedo, filmmaker Beth de Araújo, and KPop Demon Hunters writers Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan.
Star-studded presenters who join this year’s honorees at the annual gala will include Christopher Miller, Representative Joaquín Castro, Nick Pugliese, Phil Lord, Happy’s Place Melissa Peterman and Pablo Castelblanco.
Additional attendees expected at the event include Benito Martinez, Bobby Soto, Chelsea Rendon, Curly Velazquez, Daniella Pineda, Diana Maria Riva, Elsa Collins, Emilio Rivera, Gabriel Luna, Gloria Calderón Kellett, Isabella Gomez, Linda Yvette Chavez, Mayan Lopez, Mishel Prada, Ryan Guzman, Silvia Olivas, Wilmer Valderrama, and Yvett Merino.
James Ortiz is an award-winning actor, director, performer, and designer across stage and screen. In 2022, he won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Puppet Design for the dinosaurs he created for the Tony-nominated production of Lincoln Center’s The Skin of Our Teeth. His acclaimed Off-Broadway creation The Woodsman, earned him a 2016 OBIE Award for Outstanding Puppet Design, and his interpretation of Milky White in the 2022 Broadway revival of Into the Woods is now on display at the Museum of Broadway.
Ortiz is also a 2017 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center residency recipient and a 2015 and 2019 Jim Henson Foundation Grant awardee. This fall, Ortiz’s puppetry design will be featured in the world-premiere opera adaptation of George Saunders’ novel Lincoln in the Bardo at the Metropolitan Opera.
Photo Credit: Allegra Messina
