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Felix Contreras has been involved with the arts for decades as both a musician and an administrator. A journalist by training, he has almost 50 years of experience in television in his native California and most recently in radio with NPR. While in California he co-founded and ran a Latin jazz festival in Fresno for a non-profit Hispanic arts organization as well as pioneering Latin Alternative programming in concert and club venues in the late 1990’s. He was a reporter for NPR's Arts Desk for ten years before pivoting 12 years ago to Alt.Latino, a podcast from NPR Music that covers Latinx arts and culture.

Through conversation and performances, he has featured Latin music pioneers (Carlos Santana, Rita Moreno) as well as catching contemporary Latin music artists in their earliest days. As a student of Afro Cuban percussion since his high school days, Contreras also has a deep interest in the intersection of Latin music cultures and genres like jazz, funk and rock. Contreras resides in Silver Spring, MD where he leads Los Day Trippers, a Beatles cover band featuring Afro Caribbean rhythms.