Ariel R. Capote (born October 28, 1976), born Ariel Ruiz Perez Rivero, is a Spanish writer & independent filmmaker noted for his auteur style of which love appears in some capacity of the works in theme or mood.

Capote grew up the oldest of four children to a Hortensia Ruiz Capote, a Cuban national volleyball player of Spanish Nigerian descent and Juan Enrique Pacheco, a Spanish born poet and Cuban revolutionary. He is brother to Indie photographer Cristina De Armas of The Kids of Rock photography book fame and to the acclaimed American writer Truman Capote, through the latter's mother's marriage into the Capote family. Little is actually known about his name change from his birth name of Rivero to Capote, and never to or having been Pacheco, but what is known from interviews is that he chose to take his mother's maiden name to simplify his life and give himself peace of mind.

Arriving from Cuba's Mariel Harbor during the Mariel boat lift of 1980, the Pacheco family quickly established themselves in Staunton, an independent city within the confines of Augusta County in the state of Virginia, after the family was sponsored by the local Catholic church. Capote spent his early teen years traveling and living between Staunton and Glendale, a city located in Los Angeles County of California after his father's sudden death by a drunken driver.

Once engaged to French film producer Prisca J. Du Bois de Maquillé, Capote now lives in Miami Beach, Florida. His latest written work, From Auschwitz with Love: a Love Story, is set for a late 2007 release.