Actress and former beauty queen Paola Turbay was born on November 29, 1970 in Houston, Texas. Born to Colombian parents, she moved to their home country and eventually represented the city of Bogota in the National Beauty Pageant in 1991. She won, and it earned her the chance to represent Colombia in the following year’s Miss Universe pageant. She went on to place second, only following Namibian representative Michelle McLean.
Turbay returned to her country a popular figure, but she decided to focus on her studies at the Universidad de los Andes. After graduating with a psychology degree, she started hosting several television shows in Colombia, including entertainment news segments and the magazine program Hola Paola. She also made cameo appearances in several Colombian entertainment programs. After studying acting in Hollywood, Florida, she took the lead role in the Colombian sitcom Noticias calientes (Hot News) in 2002. Her other major roles there include the telenovela Las noches de Luciana (The Nights of Luciana) and the local version of Dancing with the Stars.
Turbay went back to the United States to play a role in the drama series Cane. Premiered in 2007, she appeared as Isabel Duque Vega, the only daughter of sugar magnate Pancho (Hector Elizondo) and Amalia Duque (Rita Moreno), and the wife of lead character Alex Vega (Jimmy Smits). When the show was cancelled after one season, she took a role in The Secret Life of the American Teenager, playing flight stewardess Cindy Lee, mother of “bad girl” Adrian Lee (Francia Raisa).