Joanelle Romero

Joanelle Romero is an American humanitarian, filmmaker, actress, recording artist and entrepreneur of Native American descent. She is the founder of Red Nation Media, an internet and television channel. In 2007 she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.

Joanelle Romero founded the nonprofit organization Red Nation Celebration (RNC) in 1995 with the goal of exploring, presenting and promoting Native American performing arts internationally. In 2006 she founded Red Nation Media Internet and Television Channel with all Native American programming. In 2005 she was the recipient of the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award for "the vision to see the truth…and the courage to speak it." Romero started the first Native American Heritage Month in Los Angeles in November 2005, garnering her the title "The First Lady" of American Indian Heritage Month.

In 1991 Romero founded Spirit World Productions, a Native American television, film and music production company. She was inspired to create Spirit World Productions due to the lack of Native voice in the entertainment industry. Spirit World released American Holocaust: When It’s All Over I’ll Still Be Indian, a documentary film narrated by Ed Asner. Romero directed, produced, wrote and scored the music for the film that compares the Holocaust with the United States governments treatment of American Indians and the lasting effects on contemporary culture.

As an actress, Romero has appeared in the films The Girl Called Hatter Fox (1977 TV movie based on the novel by Marilyn Harris, which marked the first time a Native American actress played a leading role), Barbarosa, Parasite and Powwow Highway.

Joanelle Romero was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1957. She was raised in Los Angeles, California. She identifies as being of Apache, Cheyenne, and Sephardic Jewish descent.