The Chicano Hollywood Film Festival has named Oscar-nominated makeup artist and character designer Ken Diaz as the inaugural recipient of its Community Impact Legacy Award, presented by Pure Flix Familia, Great American Media's upcoming Spanish-language and bilingual faith and family entertainment destination. The award was presented during the festival's Closing Night Awards Ceremony and recognizes individuals whose lives exemplify faith, servant leadership, and a lifelong commitment to strengthening families and communities.
Johnny Murillo, founder of the Chicano Hollywood Film Festival, praised Diaz's impact both on and off screen. "Ken Diaz has spent a lifetime creating unforgettable characters on-screen, but his greatest legacy is the lives he has touched off-screen," Murillo said. "His story reflects the values this award was created to recognize: faith, redemption, service, and a commitment to helping others discover hope and purpose."
Denise Crayne, Chief Financial Officer of Great American Media, highlighted Diaz's alignment with the award's mission. "Ken's remarkable career speaks for itself, but what makes him truly deserving of this honor is the way he has invested his faith, influence, and compassion in the lives of others," she said. "His commitment to mentoring others, supporting second chances, and pointing people toward hope reflects everything this award was created to celebrate."
Diaz's career includes acclaimed films such as Blood In Blood Out, American Me, and Training Day, where he brought authenticity and humanity to complex characters. However, it is his personal journey of faith that made him the unanimous choice for this inaugural honor. In 1991, Diaz was shot in the leg after confronting young gang members spray-painting graffiti beneath a Los Angeles freeway overpass. During his recovery, a friend prayed with him and introduced him to Jesus Christ, beginning a profound spiritual transformation. He became involved in a church in Pico Rivera, where he worked alongside former gang members who shared powerful dramatic presentations based on their own lives. Their stories revealed the violence and consequences of gang culture, but also the hope found through faith, forgiveness, and redemption.
"I had gone from wanting to beat these kids…to having a deeper understanding of them," Diaz recalled in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times. "I realized the humanity of the hurt, damaged people who just need love and guidance." Those relationships influenced both his ministry and his work, enabling him to portray gang life not as something to glorify but as a reflection of broken lives that can be transformed through hope and redemption.
Today, Diaz continues that commitment through his service with Homeboy Industries, the world's largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program. He serves on the Advisory Board of Homeboy Media, the organization's film and media initiative dedicated to creating pathways into the entertainment industry for formerly gang-involved and formerly incarcerated individuals. Founded in Los Angeles in 1988, Homeboy Industries provides hope, healing, and opportunity through job training, education, mental health services, tattoo removal, legal assistance, and workforce development, helping thousands of men and women rebuild their lives with dignity and purpose.
Through Homeboy Media, Diaz is helping develop filmmaking programs that provide career training and job placement for roles both in front of and behind the camera while producing films and television projects that reflect the organization's philosophy of kinship, redemption, and hope. "Ken has never separated his faith from his profession," Murillo said. "Whether mentoring young artists, helping tell authentic stories on screen, or creating opportunities for men and women rebuilding their lives after incarceration, he has consistently used his God-given talents to serve others. That lifelong commitment to faith, family, and second chances makes him the ideal inaugural recipient of this award."
