Santa Diabla
Season 1 e.tv (*194) 09:30 Telenovela
Gaby Espino jokes that she got tired of swapping dream careers, “So I chose to be an actress instead.” She plays vengeful Santa Martínez in Latin-American telenovela Santa Diabla (2013-2014) and giggles that “there is nothing as good as being a TV villain, even when you’re someone good doing something bad”. But the 40-year-old is anything but cruel in real life – she grew up surrounded by animals and wanted to become a vet.
1 “Studying was hard – and I didn’t even get to the vet work,” laughs Gaby. She swapped majors twice before attending a single class, going from vet to dental assistant to public relations, adding that “books aren’t for me”.
2 Gaby’s first role was a three-in-one deal on kids show Nubeluz (19901996), where she had the hosting role for two years and played a music star named Dalina. She also had to perform her own songs for the series.
3 Besides being the face of fizzy drink brand Pepsi in Venezuela, Gaby has her own beauty product line and shares her make-up tricks on her social media accounts. Rule #1: never go to bed with your make-up on, no matter what time you get home.
4 She’s considered a bit of a soapie national treasure in her home country Venezuela and is reportedly sent almost every telenovela script to read before any other actress.
5 And despite a busy schedule – she does motivational talks and has a number of film and TV shows in production – “Nothing is as important as family,” states the actress. Gaby has an 11-year-old daughter named Oriana and a five-year-old son named Nickolas with her actor exes Cristobal Lander and Jencarlos Canela.