After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Carmen Pelaez wrote her first solo play Rum & Coke, which she performed to raves in NY, LA, Chicago and Miami culminating in an award-winning off Broadway run in 2008. 

In 2012, Carmen Peláez won the HBO NYLFF Short Film Competition with The Acting Lesson and followed up with her short, A Queen Without His Crown. Most recently she directed the short, Mango Season for which she received an honorable mention at the 2020 Miami International Film Festival. In 2020 she was commissioned by Oolite to create the short doc, Caridad y Gallo, as part of their Close Quarters Series.

Miami post Brooklyn has been a joy after having found a theatrical home at Miami New Drama at the Colony Theater which premiered her play, Fake, in 2019 and commissioned Strapped for its 7 Deadly Sins in 2020 (Winner of the 2020 Drama League Award). Her most recent commission, The Cuban Vote, premiered in 2022 and was extended twice due to popular demand. In January of 2024, it was part of the Folger Library’s Reading Room series.

Most recently Carmen starred in Arroz Con Leche y Powerball by Mariana Serrano and Kathy Martini’s Sombras Nada Mas.

Carmen has proudly worked on President Barack Obama's Cuba policy team and is on President Biden’s Cuba advisory team. She has also written for NBC Latino, Marie Claire, The Huffington Post and The New York Times. In 2023, she was featured in John Leguizamo Does America—Miami.

Most recently she was commissioned by the Huntigton Theater to adapt Antigone and by Miami New Drama to write a Caridad. Carmen was a 2023 MacDowell fellow and was honored to received the Elizabeth Ireland McCann Fellowship. and a 2023 Ellie Award recipient. She just completed a run of acting in her play Waiting for America which was part of Miami New Drama’s Museum Plays at the Rubell Museum, Miami.

Currently she's developing her first feature adaptation, The Cuban Vote as well as her short film Colada.