It’s Time for Miami Actor Aimee Carrero’s Close Up

After being cast to portray a trainee paramedic in the action comedy “Code 3,” Aimee Carrero was given the tantalizing option to go on a ride-along and observe professional first responders. She didn’t know whether to accept, though. While she was intrigued and well-aware that it would aid her performance, the Miami-raised actor admits to Flamingo she was also a little terrified.

Carrero quickly got over these concerns. Initially intending to go for just two hours, she found the experience so exhilarating that she ended up riding with the paramedics for their entire 12-hour shift. It proved invaluable for her work in “Code 3,” which follows the 24-hour shift of the exhausted and overworked paramedic Randy (Rainn Wilson) as he trains Jessica (Carrero) to replace him before he quits. “It’s such an intimate thing to go into people’s homes, especially when it could be one of the worst days of their lives,” explains Carrero, who recalls seeing an allergic reaction, a dog bite and people suffering from epilepsy, diabetes and struggling with their mental health. Her main aim throughout was to just not got in the way, though.

“Code 3” is a milestone movie for Carrero for another reason. After moving to Los Angeles in the late 2000s, Carrero spent the next 15 years building up a formidable resume. She starred in the sitcom “Young & Hungry,” thriller series “The Consultant,” spy show “The Americans,” as well as the Netflix drama “Maid.” She also appeared in the movies “The Last Witch Hunter,” “Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel,” “The Menu” and “Spirited.” But while she had to audition for each of these roles, she was offered the part of Jessica in “Code 3” on the spot after Matt Smith, one of the producers of the film, saw her in “The Menu” and was Impressed. “It was actually one of the easiest jobs I’ve ever gotten, to be honest …” she says. “It took all those years of auditioning and doing jobs for someone to say that I didn’t need to audition.” While some actors are being offered parts within months of arriving in Hollywood, Carrero has been traveling around Los Angeles and auditioning for well over a decade, motivated by her love of performing and intent to prove herself.

Carrero’s journey to acting began in Miami, where she moved at the age of five from the Dominican Republic. A lively and energetic child, Carrero believes her parents enrolled her in an acting class at the Coconut Grove Playhouse to help calm her down. “I think they just wanted me to get all of my energy out. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be in the performing arts.” It was through this extracurricular that Carrero got her first taste of the stage, as she regularly performed as part of a musical theater camp. While it was mostly just “a bunch of little kids singing and prancing around on stage,” the experience changed her life forever. Without it she’s not even sure what direction her life would have taken.

Carrero soon started to get the occasional odd acting job in Florida, appearing in other theater productions, doing commercials and landing a local agent. Working alongside adult actors in the theater and in commercials proved to Carrero that acting could be a career. But her parents were always concerned about the instability of the acting world, as her father is a civil engineer and her mother is a teacher.

Miami has really given me access to a lot of different lifestyles. As an artist, I’m always pulling from that because Miami is just full of interesting people.
—Aimee Carrero

While her parents didn’t discourage her from acting, they wanted to make sure she had a backup plan. So she studied international relations at Florida International University. “I had an interest in politics, especially on the international stage.” If she ever became a starving artist, Carrero promised her parents that she’d go to law school, as this would have still given her the chance to be in front of an audience. She needn’t have worried, though.

Soon after graduating college, though, Carrero landed an agent based in Los Angeles and the opportunity to move out to Hollywood and try to establish herself proved too alluring. “I gave myself three years. Then I would see where everything was going and decide if I wanted to keep doing it.” Carrero only needed one audition. Within a month of moving to Los Angeles, she’d landed a role in a movie. While this gave her the confidence to proceed with her acting ambitions, she’s the first to admit that it was “very unusual” and lucky for her to have that much success so soon after arriving in the city. For her it just underlines how there is “no direct approach in this industry.”

Carrero might have spent more than 15 years living in Los Angeles, but she’s still a proud Floridian. Looking back on being raised in the city, she credits Miami’s “melting pot of cultures and sub-cultures and people from different socio-economic statuses” for inspiring her work. “You are exposed to a lot of different ways of living life. Miami has really given me access to a lot of different lifestyles. As an artist, I’m always pulling from that because Miami is just full of interesting people.”

Over the last few years, Carrero has used this knowledge to inspire performances in an eclectic array of shows, plays and movies. After appearing on stage as the naive Honey in the Los Angeles production of “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?,” she starred as the manipulated Patti in the Prime Video thriller “The Consultant” and then played the housekeeper Elena in Apple+’s “Your Friends & Neighbors.” When it came to starring in “Code 3,” Carrero wasn’t just attracted to playing a hopeful paramedic in a film co-written by a former emergency worker, Patrick Pianezza, but as a huge fan of “The Office,” she also couldn’t resist the opportunity to star alongside Wilson. “I’m just a huge fan of his work. He was already attached.” Another of her co-stars in the film is comedian and “Get Out” star Lil Rel Howery. She was particularly excited to see how actors who are used to finding the funny in scenes handled the more dramatic moments. “Comedic actors tend to be underestimated when it comes to their dramatic ability,” she explains. Carrero was blown away by the “weight and heart” they brought to these scenes, especially as the film becomes more realistic and profound the longer it goes on.  

Carrero hopes “Code 3”’s mixture of drama and comedy will give viewers a better understanding and deeper respect for the work first responders do, as she admits, “I certainly had no idea how punk their jobs are.” Even though most narratives about medical emergencies are shown from the perspective of doctors and surgeons, before patients arrive in hospitals, paramedics are the ones who have stabilized and cleaned them up, all while being under-funded,  under-paid, and over-worked,

Clearly delighted by the experience of making “Code 3”—and following on from the success of “Your Friends & Neighbors” (which has already been renewed for a second season)—Carrero is also hopeful that she’s entering a new phase of her career, where roles come to her rather than her trying for them. Even if she still has to audition, though, she knows exactly what she’s after. “Just having a job as an actor in general is awesome. The industry can be so tumultuous. But for me, it’s all about working with talented people and playing interesting characters. It’s important that I keep up the momentum I’ve built.”

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