COLE ORTIZ-Mackes

ABOUT ME

Cole Ortiz-Mackes is an actor, writer, Improvisor, and proud native New Yorker, born and raised in Chelsea. 

Cole started acting when he was 12, earning his first role as a mischievous younger brother in the horror short “Chat” directed by Moon Molson. After 14 years, Cole collaborated with Moon again in 2025 on the cerebral thriller The Black Dog is Nipping at Your Heels (post production) playing the main antagonist, Dave. Another recent credit includes a leading role as Chris, an awkward, shy, and vulnerable high school student, in the award winning short film Stateside directed by Dennis Shinners. Other film credits include a supporting comedic character role as David in Three Leaf Production’s romcom Accident Prone, and a leading role as the haunted and depressed Joe, in the horror film Sleep Tight. 

As passionate as Cole is about film, he is also equally passionate about theater. Cole over the years has played a multitude of roles across many different venues in New York City such as the Hostos Center, Theater for the New City, The Players Theater, The Tank, Theater 315, and indie DIY spaces like Cafe Katan and even the occasional Brooklyn living room or basement. Some of Cole’s favorite roles are Jason/Hamlet in Alberto Ferraras’s award winning meta comedy Hamlet in Harlem, Orlando in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, and a plethora of eccentric characters ranging from Nathan Hale, the Statue of Liberty, a dying old man, and a greasy New York accented plumber (just to name a few..) in iconic playwright and longtime staple of New York’s theatre scene, Walter Corwin’s, political satires. 

Additionally Cole performs improv comedy all across New York City and is the founder of his improv trio Jericho, where they perform a fully improvised one act play. 

Cole loves to act with physicality and spontaneity and bring creative, outside-the- box ideas to his work. Some of his biggest inspirations are Jack Lemmon, Jack Nicholson, Robert DeNiro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Nicolas Cage. Cole is attracted to projects that defy genre. His favorite movie of all time, Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, is the perfect example of this. It’s a movie that is simultaneously the funniest, most romantic movie, and also yet filled with sadness, loneliness, and political commentary that’s still relevant today. It captures the complexity of life. Those are the characters and projects, ones with grit, an edge, and a sense of humor, that he’s attracted to. 

Cole is also currently writing a sitcom pilot with his best friend Santos. The show is based on an exaggerated version of their real life friendship that is like if Superbad meets Flight of the Concords. 

When not performing or taking class, Cole can be usually found at a coffee shop drinking cold (Cole) brew, at a local movie theater, or hunting used records/blurays for his physical media collection. 

Cole has trained at T. Schreiber, SUNY Purchase, Yale Summer Conservatory for Actors, AF Theatre and Film, The PIT, and UCB.