If the name Christian Serratos sounds familiar to you, chances are high you're a fan of AMC's hugely popular series The Walking Dead. Or maybe you remember the now 29-year-old actress from her younger days on the Nickelodeon comedy Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. But even if her name isn't recognizable to you, you should be prepared to see a whole lot more of her: Serratos is playing Selena Quintanilla-Pérez in the upcoming Netflix series Selena about the life of the Mexican-American superstar, so she's sure to become a household name.
To help you get better acquainted, here's everything we know about Christian Serratos.
She's an amazing ice skater.
Serratos was born in the Los Angeles area to a mother of Mexican descent and a father of Italian descent. She began ice skating when she was three and, apparently, she was pretty great at it.
"I was at the rink every day for 10 years," Serratos told LePhant Magazine in 2009. "My coaches were talking about the Olympics and it was really crazy."
But these days, the rink is more of an escape for her. "When I want to relax, I just go to the rink and skate," she said.
She started out as a model.
Serratos signed with the Ford Modeling Agency when she was only seven years old, and that's how she got into acting. "They had this theatrical acting division," Serratos told LePhant Magazine. "I ended up loving it down the line. Then I loved it so much and stopped modeling altogether."
She wants to shatter stereotypes about the Latinx community.
Serratos grew up in a Spanish-speaking household, and, like fellow rising star Ana de Armas, she's committed to bringing more nuance and depth to Latinx representation on screen.
In 2015, she told MTV that she loves playing Rosita Espinosa on The Walking Dead, because even though she's "very clearly Hispanic," her heritage doesn't define her. "You see her speak Spanglish, but that’s about it," she said.
Serratos also confessed that she'd love to someday play "somebody who is very famously Latina." Well, looks like she got her wish!
She was in Twilight.
Summit EntertainmentAt the age of 18, Serratos played Angela Weber, one of Bella Swan's (Kristen Stewart) friends in the 2008 movie Twilight. You might not remember her small role, but the performance was enough to win her a trophy at the 30th Young Artist Awards. Serratos reprised the role in the sequels The Twilight Saga: New Moon and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
She's vegan and loves animals.
If you scour Serratos' Instagram, you'll find plenty of photos of her cuddling barnyard animals, as well as her two mini poodles, Johnny Cash and Gigi, and their four babies: Polar, Gibson, Gorilla, and Uffie.
She posed nude for PETA.
PETASerratos has no problem proving that women can be smart, strong, and sexy. In 2010, she was included in Maxim's "Hot 100" list, and the year before that, she posed nude for a PETA poster.
"I've always been opposed to slaughtering, eating, wearing carcass," Serratos said in a statement at the time.
She's a mom.
In May 2017, Serratos announced that she had given birth to her first child with boyfriend David Boyd, the lead singer for the Danish alt rock band New Politics. Her name is Wolfgang, and she frequently makes adorable appearances on Serratos' Instagram.
"Mama life is so cool," Serratos told Entertainment Tonight in March 2019. "Everyone warned me about these 'terrible twos,' which I think is such a faux pas. Stop saying that, because two is so bomb! She's, like, communicating with me, and her personality is so awesome. She's a little tomboy and I love her so much."
