Charlotte Ayanna

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Charlotte Ayanna
Born September 25, 1976 (1976-09-25) (age 32)
San Juan, Puerto Rico

Charlotte Ayanna (born September 25, 1976) is an American actress.

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[edit] Early life

Ayanna was born as Charlotte Lopez in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but moved to Vermont at an early age. She had a troubled childhood, spending thirteen years in foster homes after her mother, Emma, was judged to be mentally unfit to look after her and her two siblings.[1] In 1994, at age 17, she was adopted into a foster home.[2][3] She has since become a spokeswoman for foster children.

[edit] Career

Her first national exposure was in 1993, when she became Miss Teen USA.[4] Charlotte co-authored a book titled Lost in the System, published in 1996, detailing her childhood and subsequent rise to Miss Teen USA. She later changed her last name to "Ayanna", meaning "blessed" in Cherokee.[5]

Following her pageant victory, she made guest appearances on television shows including Weird Science and Entourage as an obsessed fan of Vincent Chase who she sent a nude picture of herself. She also appeared in the music video for her fellow Puerto Rican Ricky Martín's hit She's All I Ever Had.

Her film roles include Jawbreaker (1999), The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000) in which she played a stripper and performed several nude dance routines, Kate & Leopold (2001), Training Day as Ethan Hawke's wife, and Love the Hard Way (2003) with Adrien Brody. She also starred with Sean Patrick Flanery as the sexy vampiress in the horror-made-for-DVD movie The Insatiable (2006).

[edit] Awards and nominations

In 2002 she won the Best Actress award at the Valenciennes International Festival of Action and Adventure Films for Love the Hard Way (2001) tied with Kajol for Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001).

[edit] Filmography

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Jamie Solinger
Miss Teen USA
1993
Succeeded by
Shauna Gambill
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