Born in the State of Mexico in 1995, Diego Ugalde trained as a filmmaker in New York, Vancouver, and Los Angeles. At NYFA, he served as cameraman and A.D. on The Perfect Gangster (2017), a gritty doc about ex-hitman John Elite—former Gotti family enforcer and real-life inspiration for The Godfather.

Cutting his teeth in L.A.’s indie scene, Diego worked on a range of features and shorts, making his mark in camera and lighting departments, and later as a development assistant at Millennium Pictures. In 2020, he wrote and directed Ya’ax Che’, a short film spoken entirely in Mayan, shot deep in the Yucatán jungle. It won Best Short at the United Latino Film Festival.

By 2022, Diego had returned to Mexico with a vision: to build a creative powerhouse in the Caribbean. He founded FILMA, the first university of Film, Acting, and Animation in Quintana Roo—an institution committed to bold storytelling and cultural authenticity. Today, FILMA is also a hub for the industry, hosting festivals, conferences, and masterclasses with some of Mexico’s top filmmakers.

Diego is currently developing his debut feature, surrounded by a new wave of storytellers he's helping shape from the ground up.