At 23, actress America Ferrera has already established herself as both a critically acclaimed actress and the international superstar of the hit television series Ugly Betty. Ferrera was born and raised in Woodland Hills, California by parents who immigrated to the United States from Honduras in the mid-1970s. Later, her mom divorced her father and raised six kids – five girls, one boy –emphasizing the importance of higher education. All six graduated from college – Ferrera earned her degree in international relations from the University of Southern California, though she pursued acting throughout. From the time she was seven years old, when she landed a small role in a school production of “Hamlet,” Ferrera knew she wanted to be a performer. She acted in school plays and community theater in Los Angeles throughout her youth, but with little help from her mom, who insisted she also pursue other interests. Not that her mother doubted her talent – far from it – but she was concerned about whether or not her daughter would get a fair shake in Hollywood. Ferrera was forced to take the bus to auditions, though eventually her mom saw her daughter’s dedication and began to drive her.
At 16, Ferrera signed with a small talent agency and began auditioning for commercials and other projects. Her first big break came at seventeen when she was cast as one of a handful of Latina girls transformed from a group of shiftless teens into a championship dance troupe by a schoolteacher in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Gotta Kick It Up in 2002. On the strength of her performance, Ferrera landed the lead in Real Women Have Curves, playing a young woman determined to go to college to pursue her writing dreams rather than stay with her close-knit family and work in a dressmaking factory. The coming-of-age drama earned positive reviews and Ferrera was singled out for her charismatic performance.
Ferrera soon transitioned to television, appearing as a high school student with obsessive-compulsive disorder in Touched by an Angel and as a pregnant teen forced out of her home in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production Plainsong. After an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Ferrera was next seen as the real-life skateboarding groupie Thunder Monkey in Lords Of Dogtown (2005), the rags-to-riches tale of the famed Z-Boys who revolutionized their sport in the 1970s. Next she starred in The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants (2005), a coming-of-age drama about four lifelong friends who split apart for the first time in their lives, but keep in touch by sharing a pair of pants that magically fits each of their distinct frames.
Ferrera was then was asked to play the lead role on the one-hour drama Ugly Betty, for which she recently received a Golden Globe nomination and recently, an Emmy Award® win. An Americanized version of the popular Columbian telenovela Yo Soy Betty Le Fea, the show was brought to the U.S. by actress Salma Hayek, who serves as the show’s executive producer. The classic fish-out-of-water tale centers on Betty Suarez (Ferrera), an awkward college graduate in oversized braces, red-rimmed glasses and bad outfits who dreams of one day running her own fashion magazine. Cheerful, intelligent and possessed of an inner beauty that allows her to survive the cutthroat fashion industry, Betty struggles to be herself in a superficial world while staying true to her Latino culture at home. Ferrera can be seen back on the big screen this August in the sequel to The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants.
