Miriam Colon plays Maria Santos on the CBS daytime drama, GUIDING LIGHT, a role which she has been playing since 1999. As the beloved abuela to her grandsons -- mobsters Danny and Tony, and Ray, a priest -- Maria is a stern and proud woman whose desire to protect her family at any cost underscores her every move.

Born and raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Colon wanted to pursue acting as a career since childhood. She often performed in school plays and was a member of the drama department of the University of Puerto Rico, which later awarded her a scholarship to New York to study at the Dramatic Workshop and Technical Institute.

Colon's extensive film credits include the starring role in Isabel, la Negra opposite Jose Ferrer and Raul Julia; One Eyed Jacks and The Appaloosa, both starring Marlon Brando; Backroads, co-starring with Sally Field; The Possession of Joel Delaney with Shirley MacLaine; and Scarface, in which she played Al Pacino's mother. Her latest film credits are John Sayles' Lone Star; Gabriel Garcia Marquez' film, Epido Alcalde; Sabrina; The House of the Spirits with Meryl Streep and Glenn Close; The Blue Diner; the soon-to-be-released All the Pretty Horses, with Matt Damon; and Havana Nocturne with Andy Garcia.

As its Artistic Director and Founder, Colon has guided the operations of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre for the past 33 years, producing 104 plays. A frequent presence on stage, Colon has starred on Broadway in The Wrong Way Lightbulb; opposite Dame Judith Anderson in In the Summer House; and in The Innkeepers with Geraldine Page. Among her numerous off-Broadway and regional theater credits is Eduardo Machado's Floating Islands at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, for which she won the 1994 Dramalogue Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre. The previous year, in 1993, Colon received an Obie award for Lifetime Achievement.

Colon has given performances in over 250 television shows, ranging from such classic programs as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Virginian, Gunsmoke, The Fugitive and Sanford and Son, to the more contemporary fare of Murder She Wrote, Law & Order, The Cosby Mysteries, and NYPD Blue.

Colon is a member of the Board of Directors of the Actors Studio. She is married to Dr. Fred Valle, a plastic surgeon, whom she met while he was auditioning for a role in the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre's production of The Oxcart.