Award-winning American actress America Ferrera was born on April 18, 1984 in Los Angeles, California to Honduran parents. At age eight, she started acting in school plays and community theater. She was educated at the George Ellery Hale Middle School and El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, where she was raised. She studied International Relations at the University of Southern California, as well as briefly attending the New York University in 2006. America Ferrera's film debut was in the Disney Channel television movie Gotta Kick It Up! This was followed by being cast as the character Ana Garcia in the 2002 drama Real Women Have Curves. She was recognized by the Sundance Film Festival as Best Actress for her role. She then appeared in a number of television roles in series like Touched by an Angel that same year, as well as in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2004. She was cast as Luiza in the short action film Darkness Minus Twelve before landing the role of Blanca in 2005's How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer. Ferrera has also been noted for her performance in the book-based film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, along with its 2008 sequel. She was also in Lords of Dogtown and 3:52 in 2005. The next year, she was given the lead role in the television series Ugly Betty. The show is an adaptation of the Colombian hit telenovela Betty La Fea. In the series, Ferrera plays a young and intelligent woman who works hard as an assistant in a fashion magazine. She is highly efficient despite her lack of experience. Ferrera's portrayal of Betty Suarez in the American version won her a 2007 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical. She also won the prestigious Screen Actors Guild Award that year, for Best Female Actor in a Comedy Series.