Built as a single theater in 1926, the venue was rebuilt as a three-theater performing arts complex in the late 1990s.

[2] El Portal Theater was designed by Lewis Arthur Smith in the Spanish Renaissance Revival style with a neon art deco marquee.

[3] Built in 1926, it originally opened as a 1400-seat vaudeville theater, but soon after was converted to a movie palace, first for silent and then Academy Award-winning films.

[1][4] El Portal Theater has been featured in numerous film and television productions, including Glee, Modern Family, Billy Glimmer, Criminal Minds, Desperate Housewives, The Biggest Loser, all three CSIs, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Ghost Whisperer, Sarah Silverman's Jesus is Magic, Last Comic Standing, R&B Divas, Wendy Liebman's I Look Taller on TV, Licorice Pizza, and more.

Additionally, the 2012 and 2013 reunion and finale episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race were shot on the El Portal MainStage.