Charlotte Ayanna

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charlotte Ayanna

Born	September 25, 1976 (1976-09-25) (age 31) San Juan, Puerto Rico

Charlotte Ayanna (born September 25, 1976) is an American actress.

Ayanna was born as Charlotte Lopez in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but moved to Vermont at an early age. She had a troubled childhood, spending thirteen years in foster homes after her mother, Emma, was judged to be mentally unfit to look after her and her two siblings.^[1] In 1994, she was adopted.^[2]^[3] She has since become a spokeswoman for foster children.

Her first national exposure was in 1993, when she became Miss Teen USA.^[4] Charlotte co-authored a book titled Lost in the System, published in 1996, detailing her childhood and subsequent rise to Miss Teen USA. She later changed her last name to "Ayanna", meaning "blessed" in Cherokee.^[5]

Following her pageant victory, she made guest appearances on television shows including Weird Science and Entourage as an obsessed fan of Vincent Chase who sends him a nude picture of herself. She also appears in the music video for her fellow Puerto Rican Ricky Martín's hit She's All I Ever Had.

Her film roles including Jawbreaker (1999), The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000), and Kate & Leopold (2001). She also starred with Sean Patrick Flanery as the sexy vampiress in the horror-comedy The Insatiable (2006).