Carla Cavina was born in Puerto Rico on September 30, 1975. In 1993, she published the poetry book Corredora de Sueños. She completed a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts/photography from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). She studied theater, acting and dramaturgy with El Teatro Rodante of the UPR, Bread & Puppet Theater (Vermont) and Mala Yerba (Ecuador).

Dedicated to performance, photography, theater and set design for more than 10 years, Cavina also took several scriptwriting workshops. In 2002, she and founded the Cinematic Workshop, an organization in which she serves as president, and with which she conducts community film workshops throughout the island.

Cavina wrote, directed, and edited the shorts Do you have Fire? (2007), the video art Ming I or the Darkening of the Light (2008), The Sky of the Mice (2009) and Do we know each other? (2014) that has been presented in more than 17 national and international festivals. In 2008 she wrote her first feature film Extra Terrestres, which was produced and released in 2016. In 2024, she directed the documentary film Water Strike.