| America Ferrera | |
|---|---|
Ferrera in April 2010 |
|
| Born | America Georgina Ferrera[1] April 18, 1984 Los Angeles, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Spouse | Ryan Piers Williams (m. 2011–present) |
America Georgina Ferrera[1] (born April 18, 1984) is an American actress, best known for playing the lead role in the television comedy series Ugly Betty. Her portrayal garnered critical acclaim, and she won the Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress in a Comedy Series", the Screen Actors Guild Award for "Best Female Actor in a Comedy Series", and the Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series".
She has also starred in Real Women Have Curves, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, its sequel Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, and The Dry Land, and had a small role in the skateboard biopic Lords of Dogtown (2005). In addition, she was the voice of Astrid the Viking in the Dreamworks animated picture How to Train Your Dragon.
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Ferrera, the youngest of six children, was born in Los Angeles, California. [2] Her parents, América Griselda Ayes and Carlos Gregorio Ferrera, were originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1970s.[3] Her mother worked as the director of the housecleaning staff for Hilton Hotels,[4] and stressed the importance of higher education.[5] When she was 7, her parents divorced and her father returned to Honduras.[6] Ferrera's father passed away in 2010. [7]
Ferrera was raised in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles, where she attended Calabash Street Elementary School, George Ellery Hale Middle School and El Camino Real High School.[8] From the time she was seven years old, when she landed a small role in a school production of Hamlet and then at age 10, the role as the Artful Dodger in Oliver!, Ferrera knew that she wanted to be a performer. Her first play was Romeo and Juliet, and although only in the third grade, she went to the junior high school and auditioned and got the role of the Apothecary.[9] She acted in school plays and community theater in Los Angeles throughout her youth, though with little help from her mother, who insisted that she pursue other interests because she was concerned her daughter would not be treated fairly. Ferrera was forced to take the bus to auditions, though eventually her mother saw her daughter’s dedication and began to drive her.[5] Ferrera disliked her first name as a child and went by her middle name, "Georgina", until she began acting professionally.[10]
While at El Camino High School, she took acting lessons at the age of 15 and was able to pay for them by waiting tables and babysitting. She graduated with a 4.3 GPA and was named class valedictorian.[9]
She entered the University of Southern California on a presidential scholarship, with a double major in theater and international relations. She dropped out of school one semester short of graduating due to her wanting to focus on Ugly Betty.[9]
In July 2002, Ferrera made her first TV movie, Gotta Kick It Up! for The Disney Channel. While at drama camp at Northwestern University that same year,[11] she made her feature film debut in the indie sleeper hit Real Women Have Curves. Ferrera followed this with roles in both television (Touched by an Angel) and film (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Lords of Dogtown). Ferrera received a 2005 Movieline Breakthrough Award. She was also in the movie Plainsong, based on the novel by Kent Haruf which starred Aidan Quinn and Rachel Griffith. Ferrera plays a pregnant teenager, Victoria Roubideaux, who has been kicked out of her mother's house, and she is taken in by two kindly brothers who live alone on a farm.[12] How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer came out in 2005, and she starred as the third generation of a Mexican-American family. She played Bianca, a 17 year old who while on the verge on womanhood is fed up with the boys in her neighborhood but finds romance with another boy from a neighboring town. In 2006, she appeared in the short film 3:52 which won the Audience Award at the San Diego Women Film Festival. Later that year she starred in Steel City which received nominations at the Independent Spirit Awards and the Sundance Film Festival.[13]
In December 2005, she appeared in the off-Broadway play Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, directed by Trip Cullman.
She landed the lead role of Betty in Ugly Betty in 2006. Ugly Betty is an adaptation of the Colombian hit telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea, in which Ferrera portrays a girl whom her peers find extremely unattractive, thus the series title. As Betty Suarez, Ferrera wears braces, has bushy eyebrows and a disheveled wig, and make-up and clothing intended to downplay her own looks, in contrast to most of the "glammed up" characters; Ferrera herself coined the term “Bettification” to describe the process of creating her onscreen persona.[14] The first run of Ugly Betty was completed with the series finale on ABC-TV on Wednesday, April 14, 2010.
For her role in Ugly Betty, Ferrera won the 2007 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical. As a result of the award, she was congratulated by the U.S. House of Representatives as being a role model for young Hispanics.[15] On January 28, 2007, Ferrera won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Female Actor in a Comedy Series.[16] She also starred in and was the executive producer for the poignant short film Muertas.
In 2007, TIME chose Ferrera as one of the top artists and entertainers in their "Time 100: The Most Influential People In The World" issue.[17] In July 2007, Ferrera won Imagen Foundation's Creative Achievement Award.[18]
On September 16, 2007, Ferrera won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series[19] for her Ugly Betty role, the first Latina to win in that category. In the summer of 2007, she wrapped filming on The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, the sequel to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, as Carmen. Among other film work, she supplied the voice of Astrid in the hit animated film How to Train Your Dragon (2010). She appears in The Dry Land which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival[20] and ran at the Dallas International Film Festival where it won the top prize in the Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature.[21]
As a presenter at the 2007 Film Independent's Spirit Awards, she said the United States won't be free again until President Bush leaves office in 2008.[22] The Bush administration ended in 2009.[23]
Beginning November 7, 2011, Ferrera makes her London stage debut playing Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago in London's West End.[24]
Ferrera married Ryan Piers Williams on June 27, 2011.[25]
| Year | Film | Role | Notes and Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Real Women Have Curves | Ana Garcia | |
| 2002 | Gotta Kick It Up! | Yolanda "Yoli" | |
| 2004 | Darkness Minus Twelve | Luiza | |
| 2005 | How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer | Blanca | |
| 2005 | The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants | Carmen Lowell | |
| 2005 | Lords of Dogtown | Thunder Monkey | |
| 2005 | 3:52 | Kate | |
| 2006 | Steel City | Amy Barnes | |
| 2007 | Muertas | Rebecca | Also executive producer |
| 2007 | Towards Darkness (Hacia la oscuridad) | Luiza | Also executive producer |
| 2007 | Under the Same Moon | Marta | |
| 2008 | The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 | Carmen Lowell | |
| 2008 | Tinker Bell | Fawn | Voice, Direct-to-video |
| 2010 | The Dry Land | Sarah | Also executive producer |
| 2010 | How to Train Your Dragon | Astrid | Voice |
| 2010 | Our Family Wedding | Lucia Ramirez | |
| 2012 | End Of Watch | Officer Orozco | |
| 2013 | 64 Zoo Advnetures part 1 and 2 | Lucy the Hornbill | Voice, Direct-to-video |
| 2014 | How to Train Your Dragon 2 | Astrid | Voice |
| Year | Show | Role | Notes and Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Touched by an Angel | Charlee | Episode: "The Word" |
| 2004 | $5.15/Hr. | TV film | |
| 2004 | Plainsong | Victoria Roubideaux | TV film |
| 2004 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | April Perez | Episode: "Harvest" |
| 2006–2010[26] | Ugly Betty | Betty Suarez | Lead Role |
| 2011 | The Good Wife | Natalie Flores | 3 Episodes: "Silver Bullet", "Killer Song", "Foreign Affairs" |
| 2011 | Handy Manny | Graciela Morales | Voice only Episode: "Snow Problem" |
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