After getting her television start by spending a year on the daytime soap-opera Ryan's Hope, she gained international recognition for her role as scheming vineyard heiress Melissa Agretti on the long-running primetime soap opera Falcon Crest which she portrayed for seven seasons from 1982 until 1988.

On summer break after her freshman year, Ortiz auditioned for The Adobe Horseshoe Dinner Theatre outside El Paso, Texas.

She left Wellesley College, instead pursuing her bachelor's degree in drama at the University of Texas at El Paso to be closer to her mother and three brothers.

[2] Her first professional role under an AEA contract was as one of the Pigeon Sisters in a production of The Odd Couple starring Bob Denver at The Adobe Horseshoe Dinner Theater in El Paso.

[3] Ana Alicia spent the next three years performing in main stage productions at UTEP as well as having significant roles in the Adobe Horseshoe repertoire.

She won the part of Alicia Nieves on Ryan's Hope, a daytime soap opera, moving to New York City for taping.

She played a major role in the 1981 TV movie Coward of the County, which also starred Kenny Rogers, and was based on his hit song of the same name.

Ana Alicia appeared in the 1983 TV-movie, Happy Endings, opposite John Schneider and her former Ryan's Hope co-star, Catherine Hicks.