Biography
At age 15, after being spotted by a modeling agent during a brief trip to Santa Barbara, California, Iliana returned home to San Francisco and started modeling for runway and department stores. Her Puerto Rican/German mixture and fluency in Spanish gave her versatility and talents that she has been capitalizing on. Nevertheless, education was a priority for her mom who was a proud graduate of the University of Puerto Rico with a Master's degree in chemistry. It was always important to Iliana's mom that, especially as a Latina female, she has more to offer than a hot bod and a beautiful face! Brains must accompany that beauty! So, when Iliana was accepted at U.C. Berkeley, she attended, majoring in psychology and Spanish literature. To satisfy her creative needs and to perform/entertain, Iliana joined and performed jazz, ballet, and modern combinations locally with the University Dance Company.
During a brief hiatus from school, Iliana got married, moved to Los Angeles, became a stepmother, and gave birth to a daughter. After a divorce, and finding herself a single mother, she returned to Berkeley where Iliana finished her college degrees at U.C. Berkeley. With the help of the welfare program, scholarships and student grants, and while raising her daughter by herself, she finally graduated in 1999. She majored in Psychology and minored in Spanish literature/poetry.
Next came the eager return to Los Angeles, at the suggestion of an agent, where Iliana quickly got supporting roles on Baywatch, V.I.P., Pacific Blues, Moesha, a feature film, an appearance on Access Hollywood as a swimsuit calendar model for "Women of Soccer" and a music video appearance in Selena's brother's cumbia group: "The Cumbia Kings". Modeling jobs at that time ranged from Lowrider Magazine, swimwear magazines, Venus Swimwear, a soccer calendar, Frederick's of Hollywood lingerie show, which aired on B.E.T. major network channel,and Versace runway shows.
After being spotted and referred to a top modeling agency in Milan, Italy, Iliana started traveling back and forth marketing herself internationally. She did shoots for Italian Maxim and Max, as well as Maxmara runway shows; she also made an appearance on Milan, Italy's channel 5 variety show. She then shot for Playboy, where she had her layout displayed in March of 2003 on the Playboy.com website as a "Cybergirl."
She has since starred in the 2004 internationally released film, winner of Santa Monica Film Festival Awards Showtime/TMC movie "Blind Passion,"which aired for a year and a half almost every month;
and had supporting roles in the Lorenzo Lamas movie about Latino gang fights "Latin Dragon", as well as in "Sunstorm" starring Bo Derek.
Iliana has made numerous appearances on the Latino TV channel 62 out of L.A. reaching Texas, N.Y., Miami, and many Latino countries around the world, featuring an interview of herself and promoting her calendar/website on L.A. Live, Jose Luis' "Sin Censura", "Buscando Amor", "Segunda Cita", "Que Buena",
and promoting "A-Jeans" clothing line which sponsors "Doce Corazones".
In 2005 Iliana had the privilege of being a featured guest of the Las Vegas exotic adventure stage show "X Show" at the Aladdin and Lake Tahoe's Hotel Harvey's.
Iliana appeared on the Tyra Banks Show and did photoshoots for Hot Boats Magazine as well as commercial printwork for companies such as Soft Trading video gaming accessories.
Look for Iliana modeling photos in online magazines,among them are: Askmen.com, cosmopolitan.com, Urbanmainstream.com, ads for Gianneli Italian Casual Luxury Clothing,
and in her introductory exclusive appearance on TMZ television and TMZ.com!
Iliana also promotes her first new latin/english crossover cd "Caliente", which has songs available on iTunes as well as just about every major online store; and her first music video "Mariposa", which has been played on Comcast's musicvideo channel.
Iliana has also made some live singing appearances at clubs and events in Hollywood to promote "Caliente".
In 2009, Iliana appeared in various episodes of TWO major network TV series: "Sons of Anarchy" (FX Network) which stars of "Hellboy" and Katie Sagall, Iliana plays Bobby's girlfriend and "The Starter Wife" (USA Network) starring Debra Messing, Iliana plays a Malibu-beach Pam Anderson-type chick at a posh Malibu rehab center.
In 2009, Iliana was also signed as the first and exclusive American spokesmodel for a new Italian clothing line called "Gianneli Casual Luxury Clothing", which also custom created an exclusive/special "Iliana Collection" line of T-shirts with her image on them to support and raise awareness of the cause of domestic violence, which she is passionate about, and has personally been victim of.
Iliana started selling her new Brazilian Luxury Swimwear Line called "Caliente!" on a new estore and most recently added her own brand new all-natural moisturizing mineral-based line of animal-friendly cosmetics and brushes called "I.C." (Iliana Cosmetics).
Not long after that,Iliana proudly launched a custom-created a line of supercool "Iliana","Got iliana?" and "Caliente!" products for sale.
She is also working on starting her own spicy "Caliente!" Vodka line to expand her productline.
In March 2010, there was a brief appearance on Bravo's "Millionaire Matchmaker" and 2011 was filled with many appearances on Warner Brothers' top new tv series "Suburgatory".
Iliana has been published in many top celebrity articles and websites, among them.
In between all this hard work,Iliana likes to make redcarpet appearances to promote her most current projects and to help raise awareness to worthy causes.
She's got big things in the works but trying to keep them a surprise!
Iliana believes in infinite possibilities and says that her most pressing challenge is finding the time to do all that she is doing and get enough beauty-sleep too!
