Profiles: Isabella Santo Domingo | Proimágenes Colombia

Born in Barranquilla March 28, 1970. Actress, journalist and writer, Isabella has been part of several radio, film and television projects and written for many publications. As a child she showed remarkable artistic tendencies and excelled at sports. Her primary school years were spent at the Karl C. Parrish School in Barranquilla and the Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogotá where she was editor of the school paper Tiger Times and was national racquetball champion, state figure skating champion and captain of the volleyball and softball teams.
 
Isabella studied fashion design at the American College for the Applied Arts in Atlanta, Georgia and radio and television elocution in the same city. She returned to Colombia and began working as a journalist for the Weekend supplement of the daily El Caribe where one of her chronicles was selected by UNICEF to promote health awareness in Latin America. She then moved on to the El Heraldo newspaper, creating a supplement called “Pelaos” before moving to Bogotá and joining Periódicos Asociados. In 1995, Isabella founded and became director of the music magazine Shock, where she remained for six years before going on to found the entertainment magazine Control TV. She has been a columnist for the Colombian dailies El Espectador and El Tiempo, contributed to magazines such as Nueva, Viernes Cultural, SoHo, Cromos, Diners, Aló, Ocean Drive (USA) and was director of El Tiempo’s Carrusel magazine. She has hosted radio programs for Colombia’s two major stations, Caracol and RCN.
 
Isabella began working in television as host of “Panorama”, a current events show directed by Julio Sánchez Cristo and on the news program “Colombia al día” broadcast in Miami, followed by “La Tele” where she worked alongside Carlos Vives. For several years she has hosted a special segment on the national beauty pageant for Canal Caracol’s nightly news. Isabella took her first steps as a screenwriter under the watchful eyes of Romero Pereiro and Daniel Samper Pizano writing two miniseries for Canal RCN, “Cara o Sello” and “Victoria”; the latter earned her a Simon Bolivar award for Best National Miniseries.
 
She appeared for the first time as an actress on the soap opera “Pasiones secretas” (1994), and then in “Momposina” (1995), “Solo una mujer” (1995), “Eternamente Manuela” (1995), “Tentaciones” (1998), “Perro Amor” (1998), for which role she was awarded Best Female Adversary, “Fuego Verde” (1998), “Me muero por ti” (1999), “La saga” (2004) and “Por amor a Gloria” (2005). She also made a special appearance in “Los tacones de Eva” (2006). In late 2004, Isabella wrote the successful book “Los caballeros las prefieren brutas” (Gentlemen Prefer Dummies) and launched a stand up comedy act with Alejandra Azcárate which inspired Sony Television International to create an original series produced by Laberinto Producciones, which she supervised. She also published the books “AM/FM (Asalariada de Mierda o Felizmente Mantenida)” and “Sexorcismo”.
 
Her film work includes the short and medium-length films Kalibre 35, Fama (in the US), Violet Is Blue and Hello God..., the latter two written by Isabella herself. She starred in the features Colombianos, un acto de fe by Carlos Fernández de Soto, El trato by Francisco Norden and the Colombian-Panamanian production Chance by Abner Benaim.