Santiago Pozo

Santiago Pozo Arenas (born 1957) is a marketing executive, producer, screenwriter and film director. He is the founder and owner of Arenas Group and Arenas Entertainment from 1988 to 2019, the year in which he sells the marketing and publicity divisions to the agency D2H. He is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Hollywood, the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España, the Board of Trustees of Nebrija University and in the mid-eighties he was freelance to the Spanish newspaper El País in Los Angeles.

Over 35 years in the industry, he has worked on the North American marketing campaigns of more than 300 films, including The Milagro Beanfield War, Old Gringo, Born in East L.A., Like Water for Chocolate, Shrek, My Family, Selena, Apocalypto, The Book of Life, American Sniper, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers, The Avengers, Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4, Star Trek, Madagascar, Annabelle, Son of God, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Logan, Cruella and Free Guy.

As a producer and distributor, he worked on films such as Imagining Argentina, with Antonio Banderas and Emma Thompson; Empire, with John Leguizamo; The 3 Wise Men; Culture Clash in AmeriCCa directed by Emilio Estevez; Nicotina with Diego Luna; and the adaptation of the classic Rudolfo Anaya Bless Me, Ultima, the first Hispanic novel written in the United States. As a screenwriter, Pozo, together with Gregory Small, wrote The Run, that MGM acquired an option in 2021. Pozo and Small also developed and co-wrote the adaptation of the bestseller. The Valkyries, at the request of the internationally acclaimed author, Paulo Coelho.

Pozo is considered the pioneer of marketing film and television to the U.S. Hispanic audiences.

Life Early years

Santiago Pozo was born in 1957 in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, La Rioja, Spain. He grew up in Madrid, where his father had a "mantequeria", a bakery/convenience store. He showed interest in cinema from a very young age thanks to the free tickets the neighborhood theater gave his father in exchange for hanging the poster of the weekly double session in the family store.

He began working in the cinema at the Elias Querejeta’s production company as a P.A. in the Jaime Chávarri’s film A un Dios desconocido. In 1980, Pozo wrote and directed one of the chapters of The First Meters, also produced by Elias Querejeta.

Relocate to the US and work in Universal Pictures

He emigrated to Los Angeles in 1982, without speaking English. His first job is to clean buildings, experience that allows him to come into contact with the Hispanic immigrants of the city and that will help him develop the instinct for communication with the Hispanic population. José Luis Borau, a Spanish director working in Los Angeles preparing the production of his film On the Line/Rio Abajo in California and Texas, hired him as his assistant Because of this success Universal Pictures created the first multicultural marketing department for any Studio in Hollywood dedicated to the ethnic markets with particular emphasis in the US Hispanic market, and offered Pozo to direct it.

During the following years, he worked on numerous campaigns for major studio and independent releases, where he and the investment fund Marco Polo Investments formed Arenas Entertainment. Arenas' mission was to acquire, produce and distribute films targeting the US Hispanic market.

Arenas’ first film was Empire, 2002, with John Leguizamo, Peter Sarsgaard and Denisse Richards. Arenas has also produced and distributed such films as Imagining Argentina with Antonio Banderas and Emma Thompson; Nicotina with Diego Luna, The 3 Wise Men, with the voices of Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez and Jose Luis Rodriguez (singer) and Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, directed by Emilio Estevez.

Activism and Defense of the Hispanic Culture In 2001, Pozo successfully lobbied the City of Los Angeles to add the Spanish language tilde (Ñ) to street signs where required.

He has also spoken out against the removal of the statue of Christopher Columbus in Grand Park in Los Angeles.

Likewise, Pozo has spoken about the under-representation of Latino talent and executives within Hollywood and has published numerous articles and participated in demonstrations demanding to increase the participation of Latinos in the Academy Awards.

In 2026, Pozo served as an executive producer of We the Hispanos, a documentary film by highlighting the Hispanic heritage of the United States.

Awards and recognitions In recognition of his accomplishments, Pozo has received many awards and honors during his career. In 2009, he was the first recipient of the “Outstanding Marketing in Film and Television Impact Award” presented by The National Hispanic Media Coalition.

In 2007, The Imagen Foundation honored him with its award “For Powerful and Influential Latinos.”

In 2005, he was presented with the “Minorities in Business Magazine Prism Award” for outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry.

In 2003, Pozo was chosen by Hispanic Business Magazine as an Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist as well as one of their 100 Most Influential Hispanics.

Filmography

Producer The Last Harvest (1991) (executive producer) Empire (2002) Imagining Argentina (2003) Culture Clash in AmeriCCa (2005) (executive producer) We the Hispanos (2026) (executive producer)

Director Los Primeros Metros (1980) Un Reino Sin Fronteras (2014)

Writer Los Primeros Metros (1980), producer Elias Querejeta. Un Reino Sin Fronteras (2014) The Run (2019) (in development)

Other Credits On The Line (Rio Abajo) (1984)