La Joya actress appears on 'Grey's Anatomy,' hosts Tennis Channel show

There weren’t many seniors at La Joya High School who thought Arlene Santana would end up where she is today. Ten years ago, she was just another drama student with a dream.

“Growing up, no one really thought I was going to leave,” she said.

Santana flew back home to the Valley from Los Angeles late last month to attend her 10-year high school reunion. The 27-year-old has spent the decade establishing herself as a working actress and TV personality. She has had roles on Grey’s Anatomy, interviewed Shakira, starred in several independent films and honed her stage acting in a handful of community theater troupes.

But that was always the plan.

As a little girl growing up in Sullivan City, Santana remembers acting out the roles of the lawyers and doctors she saw on TV.

“It was until I got older that I realized I didn’t want to be the lawyer,” she said. “I wanted to be the actor playing the lawyer.”

But it wasn’t until she followed her dream to California that Santana realized the formidable odds she faced finding a job.

Alone for the first time in her life, Santana slept on an air mattress and “cried for, like, my whole first week” in L.A. “My first year, I didn’t know what I was doing.”

She drudged through countless cattle-call auditions before finally landing a gig as host of LATV Live, a two-hour bilingual entertainment show. But her formal theatrical training hadn’t prepared her for the fast, improvised role of an on-air personality.

 “My executive producer almost fired me,” Santana said. “He told me I needed to go home and work on being on camera. … (On live TV) you yourself have to be interesting enough for people to watch. I didn’t know how to be myself.”

What she did know how to do was practice till she got it right. The two years she spent on the show served her well: She just recently began a lucrative position as host of Court Report on The Tennis Channel.

That’s just one of the successes she could have bragged about at the reunion, but then again, what’s the point in rubbing it in?

“I told people that (being an actress was) what I wanted to do. Not everybody believed it.”

If they didn’t then, they sure do now.

ARLENE SANTANA
CAREER Actress/TV host
HOMETOWN Sullivan City
HIGH SCHOOL La Joya High School, 2000
COLLEGE Majored in theater arts at St. Edward’s University, Austin, 2003
FILMOGRAPHY
>> LATV Live (TV show)
>> Maquillje (feature film)
>> sprint.com (host)
>> Court Report (TV show on The Tennis Channel)

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO WATCH ARLENE AT WORK!

• CLIP 1 Arlene hosts the Court Report on the Tennis Channel
• CLIP 2 Interview for Sports Illustrated
• CLIP 3 Grey's Anatomy: Season 6, Episode 6: I Saw What I Saw. Look for Arlene around the 40:00 mark.
• CLIP 4 Arlene stars in this short online film about a struggling actress in L.A. (note: this video is hilarious but not appropriate for children; viewer discretion is advised)  

ON INTERVIEWING SHAKIRA: To interview Shakira for LATV Live, Santana got the first-class treatment. She was flown to Las Vegas and taken via limousine to the Hard Rock Hotel, where the superstar singer was waiting in one of the conference rooms. “She’s tiny,” Santana said, “but her personality fills the room.”

ON HER STAGE NAME: Santana’s real last name is Cerda. “I changed my name for business,” she said. “It’s like my brand.” Santana was the obvious choice among other family names. “It had a ring to it,” she said.

HER INSPIRATION: Miss Salazar, her theater arts teacher at La Joya High School. “She was the one who gave me the idea that I could get a scholarship” through drama and acting, she said.

ON HAVING A MANAGER AND AN AGENT: “It’s crucial. You can only do so much on your own.”

ON HER GREY’S ANATOMY ROLE(S): Santana originally got cast on the hit primetime hospital drama in 2007. She played a “flirtatious” nurse in a scene with star Patrick Dempsey (“Haunt You Every Day,” Season 4 Episode 5), but unfortunately the sequence didn’t make the episode’s final cut. She was again cast as a nurse in the current season’s sixth episode, “I Saw What I Saw,” which aired Oct. 22.

I LOVE THE VALLEY

FAVORITE VALLEY SLANG WORD: “Porellar” (to party)

FAVORITE VALLEY MEXICAN RESTAURANT: Taco Olé

SOUTH PADRE: BEACH OR BAY SIDE? The bay. She loves to go out on the boat with her dad while he fishes.

HOW VALLEY ARE YOU? “I’m definitely Valley. Whenever my friends come to L.A., people are like ‘Wow, you guys are all the same.’”

FAVORITE SELENA SONG: “Como La Flor”

FAVORITE RASPA STAND: “There was a convenience store right by my house (in Sullivan City) where I used to get raspas de coco.”

Brandon Garcia is editor of Festiva. He writes about Valley natives who have found success in the entertainment industry. Know someone he should write about? Contact him at bgarcia@themonitor.com.

Click the links below to read more Hometown Hollywood profiles:

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