It didn’t take long for Lorena Abreu to become “obsessed” with the extreme sport of parkour. Growing up in McAllen, Abreu – who was born in the Dominican Republic – had always been an active child, but nothing had challenged her like it.
“Nothing has ever regulated me like parkour,” Abreu, 31, told MySA during a recent interview. “It is as much mental and creative as it is physical. There’s absolutely nothing else like it.”After graduating from the South Texas ISD Science Academy (SciTech), a high school in Mercedes, Abreu attended Full Sail University in Orlando to study film. It was while living in central Florida when she discovered parkour. She initially made videos of parkour athletes in the area before she began trying it herself.
“When I started posting my own videos, I started getting contacted to perform parkour at corporate gigs,” Abreu said. “That was the first time I realized I could use parkour as a performance art.”
Soon after, Abreu, who was nearing the end of a video editing internship at Universal, was hired to show off her parkour skills in an Adidas commercial and then for a main role in a stunt show in Universal’s Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando.
More work as a stunt performer in Hollywood came in waves. This included performing as a stunt double for actress Xochitl Gomez who played America Chavez in Marvel’s 2022 film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness; and as a stunt double for actress Malia Baker who played Chloe in the 2024 Disney musical Descendants: The Rise of Red. Abreu said parkour is a good specialty to have as a stunt performer.
“A specialty is what sets you apart from others and what you’re most passionate about,” she said. “As a stunt performer, you need to be well rounded.”
Abreu was also featured on TKO: Total Knock Out, an obstacle course competition TV series on CBS, hosted by actor and comedian Kevin Hart; Ultimate Tag, another obstacle course series that aired on Fox; and Exatlon Estados Unidos, an athletic reality competition on Telemundo.
Lorena Abreu is turning her passion of parkour, stunt work and acting into a viral career.
Photo credit Lorena Abreu
Abreu’s family also owns Kiskeya Athletics, a multidisciplinary athletic and recreational facility, including a parkour space, in Pharr. “Kiskeya” is a play on “Quisqueya,” which is the Taíno name for the island of Hispaniola, which is made up of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
As much as Abreu loves parkour and stunts, she said she would never want to let it define her. That’s because there is a career lifespan to being an extreme athlete. A serious injury can end it all in a split second. Abreu has been diagnosed with a series of blackline stress fractures, which usually happen with repeat high-impact landings.
“You can’t conflate your identity with something you like to do, especially if it’s physical,” Abreu said. “Anything could happen. You could lose your leg tomorrow.”
Luckily, Abreu has other interests like songwriting, drawing, video editing, playing the ukulele and cosplaying. Even more popular than the parkour and stunt videos she posts on her social media platforms are the videos where she dances and performs stunts at comic conventions while dressed like Dora the Explorer and Wednesday Addams.
“I’m just glad that I have so many other things that I can fill my time with,” Abreu said. “It’s great when I’m able to make my hobbies exist outside of my head.”
Still, as long as Abreu can perform parkour and stunts, she has no plans to stop. She’s proud to be a rarity in the industry.
“I’m so grateful that I have a platform where I can post my parkour training and maybe a girl will see it as a fun option and see themselves doing it,” she said. “Especially as it relates to girls, I think parkour is as much of a life skill as self-defense. I think everyone should give it a try.”