Founder/President
Kamala Lopez is an award-winning actress, filmmaker, and the founder and president of EQUAL MEANS EQUAL, a national civil rights organization dedicated to securing constitutional equality for women and LGBTQIA+ people through full recognition and enforcement of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
As an actor, Lopez has built a multi-decade career in film and television, appearing in acclaimed projects including Born in East L.A., Clear and Present Danger, I ♥Huckabees, Deep Cover, The Burning Season, Hacks, This Is Us, I Think You Should Leave, Interior Chinatown, Mayans M.C., Any Day Now, Star Trek: Voyager, NYPD Blue, Miami Vice, 24, Black Jesus, and It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.
Her feature documentary Equal Means Equal—called a New York Times Critics’ Pick—won the Best U.S. Documentary / Audience Award at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival and is widely credited with reigniting the modern movement for the ERA. The film has screened internationally, on Capitol Hill, at law schools, and in community organizations nationwide.
In January 2020, following the ratification of the required thirty-eight states, EQUAL MEANS EQUAL filed suit in federal court (EQUAL MEANS EQUAL v. Ferriero) to compel the U.S. Archivist to publish the ERA as the 28th Amendment, as required by Article V of the Constitution. This was the first of several strategic ERA lawsuits brought by the organization to force government compliance and establish women’s equal rights under law. These efforts culminated in EQUAL MEANS EQUAL v. Donald Trump, challenging the federal government’s ongoing refusal to acknowledge the amendment’s validity.
Lopez has spoken on gender equality at the United Nations, the United States Congress, universities across the country, and at international advocacy forums. She has appeared widely in national and global media including Vogue, The Daily Beast, LA Times, The Guardian, Forbes, and CNN. Her writing has been published in HuffPost, The Shriver Report, Psychology Today, TheWrap, and Playboy.
She and her team often worked in hostile political climates, mobilizing thousands of women, students, and grassroots organizers to pressure lawmakers, push back against entrenched interests, and deliver the final ratifications of Nevada (2017), Illinois (2018), and Virginia (2020).
Lopez is a driving force in the movement to secure full constitutional equality and the recognition of the ERA as the 28th Amendment. She continues to write, speak, organize, and litigate — pushing the fight into its decisive next chapter.