TV Actress Profile: America Ferrera of Ugly Betty

America Georgine Ferrera, a dark haired, dark eyed star, is better known this Fall as Ugly Betty, the leading character from NBC's new sitcom also named "Ugly Betty".

Ferrera was born on April 18, 1984 in Los Angeles, California. Ferrera's parents emigrated to the United States from Honduras in the mid-1970's. Later, her mom divorced her father and raised six kids (five girls, one boy) and stressed the importance of higher education. All six graduated from college. Ferrera earned her degree in International Relations from the University of California. However, she pursued acting throughout those years as well.

At the age of 8, Ferrera began her acting career at a local theater and in school plays, one of which was Hamlet. At 16, Ferrera signed with a small talent agency and began auditioning for commercials and other projects. Her first big gig came at age 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. The movie, Gotta Kick It Up, premiered in 2002 in the Disney Channel's movie-of-the-week.

America soon afterwards earned a starring role in the Patricia Cardoso film Real Women Have Curves. Her performance earned her a Sundance Jury Award for Best Actress, an Independent Spirit Award nomination for "Best Debut Performance," as well as a Young Artist Award nomination for "Best Performance for a Leading Young Actress."

Ferrera soon transitioned to television, appearing as a high school student with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Touched By an Angel which aired on CBS from 1994 through 2003. She then landed the role of a pregnant teen forced out of her home in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production, Plainsong in 2004. After appearing in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Ferrera was next seen as the real-life skateboarding groupie Thunder Monkey in Lords of Dogtown of 2005, the rags-to-riches tale about the famed Z-Boys who revolutionized their sport despite falling prey to the trappings of celebrity. She then appeared in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants also of 2005.

That movie was a coming-of-age drama about four life-long friends who split apart for the first time in their lives, but kept in touch by sharing a pair of pants that magically fits each of their distinct frames. Ferrera gave a strong performance as the introspective but volatile Carmen who spent the summer with her absentee father. For her role in that movie she was nominated for an ALMA Award. America also appeared in the 2005 Sundance Film Festival entry How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer, written and directed by Georgina Riedel. In recognition of her work, she received a 2005 "Breakthrough" Award.

This summer, America began production on the bilingual independent film Towards Darkness, which she will also executive produce. Directed by Antonio Negret, the film follows the last 90 minutes in a kidnap hostage's life, and the frustration his family, a man in charge of delivering the ransom money, and a special ops team all feel as they rush to save him. America plays a young woman who has a complicated relationship with the young kidnapping victim. The feature is based on Negret's short Darkness Minus 12, which America also starred in.

Furthermore, America recently completed work in a Spanish speaking role in the independent film Boy Immigrant. Directed by Patricia Riggen, the story chronicles a 9 year-old Mexican boy's journey to the United States to find his migrant mother after the grandmother who is taking care of him passes away. The film also stars Mexican actors Kate DelCastillo and Eugenio Derbez.

At the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, America appeared in the Brian Jun film Steel City, which premiered in Dramatic Competition. America most recently appeared off-Broadway in Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, directed by Trip Cullman.

This Fall America stars as the title character Betty Suarez in the highly anticipated new ABC series Ugly Betty. Betty is the unattractive but spirited secretary who doesn't quite fit in at the high fashion magazine where she works. The show, based on the enormously successful Colombian series Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, is executive produced by Salma Hayek.

"You know, when I'm in character and I'm wearing Betty's costume, I never feel more confident, more beautiful and more pretty on the inside. I wish that I, one day as America, could feel the way that I feel when I'm Betty. When I'm Betty, there's a light that shines from the inside, and it's so wonderful to be her."

Ugly Betty airs each Thursday at 8pm (eastern time). On the last episode, Betty unwittingly lost "the book," a proof of the entire magazine, complete with un-retouched photos of a popular actress (Sarah Jones) who looks less than lovely without a little computer magic. If the photos get out, it could have created huge embarrassment for Mode. Wilhelmina plotted to use the snafu to bring Daniel down. Meanwhile, Bradford Meade secretively inquired about Fey Sommer's final effects.

Catch it this Thursday before Grey's Anatomy!