by Sherif Awad
I was born and raised in Aruba, the beautiful island in the Caribbean Sea, My mother was an Aruban housewife, while my father was a half Bonaire-Aruba mechanical engineer. They were happily married and had three siblings including myself the youngest of all .
My ancestors were multiracial mix of Jews, Amerindians from the Amazon, East Africans German,Dutch, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
So is the food, dance and native Language “Papiamento”. We also spoke Dutch, English and Spanish.
In our family, we used to watch Soaps from Venezuelan TVchannels back then and old movies by my mom’s favorite actors from Latin America and the United States.
From there, my sisters and I were playing acts and dances we watched on TV ( flashdance, menudo dance, hip hop etc…
-My icons back then were Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, And ofcourse Madonna, Cindy Lauper, Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson. And in Movies Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, And many more.
-I spoke four languages and I dreamt of becoming a Hollywood star from a very young age because I liked the fantasy world and playing other roles. And after I went to study in the Netherlands from 2000 until 2004, I was looking forward to seeing how to reach but I went back to Aruba and did more in modeling and TV commercials, Then, I saw an opportunity in stage and screen acting till I landed roles in short films like TEN AVE MARIA and stage plays like CAMBIO DI HORIZONTE and CURACAO.
-I tried in 2011, I went to Los Angeles in order to look for an opportunity but it was hard and so I travelled in 2014 to the Netherlands where I worked as an extra everywhere I got a chance. But later, I got pregnant and had a very tough situation but finally everything went well and I live with my daughter as a single mother close to Amsterdam. Recently, I managed to land a casting job as an extra in the big budget films 15:17 TO PARIS, THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD and THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME. Also in the TV series BAPTISTE.
While waiting for casting calls, I move between jobs from a dental assistant to a model for Gosoaky raincoats. I dream of appearing in a Netflix series and so my family from around the globe can watch me .
My mother’s dream was to become an actress too bad she didn’t have the opportunity. Now she is in heaven watching me slowly but surely reaching my dreams.
