Let's face it: we don't see very many Latinas with starring roles these days, especially on TV. It's sad that we still aren't seeing a diverse array of characters with leading roles, but there is one up and coming actress who breaks the typical Hollywood mold. Even if you've never heard of Francia Raisa before, her new role in The Secret Life of the American Teenager is sure to earn her some much-deserved attention.Francia began her career modeling for print ads and starring in sitcoms and commercials while she was still in high school. She landed her first big role, starring opposite of Hayden Panettiere in Bring it On: All or Nothing in the first month of her senior year. Not a bad start, huh? Since school was one of her top priorities, Francia earned her diploma early so she could film the movie.
Since then, she's starred in the Nickelodeon film Shredderman Rules and most recently the ABC Family movie, The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream. In the film, she plays a tough-as-nails hockey player opposite the hunky Matt Lanter and Cutting Edge vet Christy Romano. The Cutting Edge became the number one cable program for its time, scoring 3.1 million viewers.
Her latest endeavor, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, premieres on Tuesday July 1st at 8pm EST on ABC Family. The show involves your typical high school drama with a little Juno-esque twist: shy, band-geek Amy (Shailene Woodley) is your typical good girl...who just so happens to be pregnant. Oh, and the father? Definitely not her would-be boyfriend, Ben. Yikes. Francia plays Amy's polar opposite, the devilish, trouble-making Adrian, whose flight attendant mom isn't around enough to lay down some proper parenting.
In our exclusive audio interview, we grilled Francia on everything from working with Hayden Panettiere to ice-skating to how awesome it is playing the bad girl.
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an amazing actress and I have no doubts she will go far!