Carmen, known to her mom and others as Masiela Lusha, has been away for a while, but she's coming back in a pretty big way.

Albanian-born Lusha is still certainly best known for playing Carmen Lopez, George's daughter on the hit sitcom "George Lopez."

When that series called it quits in 2007 Lusha more or less left town. She sought big-screen stardom abroad, starring in two foreign-made films.

"Time of the Comet" was a joint German-Albanian production based on a novel by renowned Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare. Filmed on location in Macedonia and Albania, it was a sort of homecoming for the 24-year-old actress, who played a Catholic nun who falls in love with a Muslim rebel. 

Then she hit the road again, working on a Chinese-French production called "Blood: The Last Vampire."

That film has already been released overseas, but in keeping with the current popularity of all things vampiric, it's set for a domestic release this summer and is already generating fairly big buzz.

But she's about to make that film-a-year schedule look like some kind of European vacation.

She currently has four films on the go with another five coming along in the next two years. She recently wrapped filming on the sci-fi thriller "Of Silence," which she also co-produced, as well as the low-budget actioner "Ballad of Broken Angels."

She's also getting ready to start filming two more: "Signed in Blood," a CGI-animated sci-fi flick she's co-producing; and "Yellow Rose of Savona," set in 1930s Italy and directed by award-winning special-effects man Patrick Tatopoulos, who recently helmed "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans."

"Yellow Rose of Savona" is the first film being made by her new production company, Illuminary Films, which has three other films coming down the pipe: the heart-rending Holocaust tale "Angel Hair"; "Graf," based on the true story of the largest zeppelin in history; and, oddly enough, the family Christmas comedy "On, Cupid!"

Lusha is set to star in all but "Graf," which she will work on as a producer only.