MOST Magazine Fashion APR'15 ISSUE NO.8 | Page 114

By: Darcy Tharp

“I have to say acting has
always been what I have
always wanted to do. I’ve
loved it since I was a kid
because it was all fantasy
and imagination.” Fortunately for
Daniella Alonso, the Puerto Rican beauty hailing
from New York, she grew up to fulfill her wish and
is now a leading actress in Hollywood. Daniella
started her career as a model and commercial
actress and transitioned into acting, landing roles
in many major television shows and a few movies.
Used to being cast as a bit of a tough chic,
Daniella exudes confidence in every role and is
captivating on screen. Though she may have hit
it big, she makes it very clear in her interview with
Fashion MOST that she never forgets where she
came from and to her, family is paramount.

It seems she has an especially close
relationship with her grandfather, still attributing the
most amazing date she has ever been on to when
she was nine years old and her grandfather took
her to Coney Island and then City Island for dinner.
“I loved him so much and to have that alone time
with one of the most incredible and hysterical
characters to ever live was priceless and a day
I will never forget!” Raised by her grandparents
and great grandmother in New York City, Daniella
learned the importance of family and what a huge
impact a loving, supportive family network has.
She reveals that the hardest thing she has ever
done is moving away from her family in NYC. “I
grew up with a huge, very tight-knit family where

114 ||

FAS HI O N

M A G A Z I N E || APRIL 2015

my uncles and aunts and cousins were like second
mothers and fathers and siblings. Leaving this
incredibly loving and supportive family to come
to LA on my own without knowing a single person
was extremely difficult.” She obviously made it
work though, and her determination paid off. Since
moving to LA she has landed recurring roles in
multiple television shows including Rizzoli and
Isles, Covert Affairs, and the role of Carlotta on
NBC’s critically-acclaimed television series Friday
Night Lights. However, Daniella is still best known
for her role as Anna Taggaro on the popular The
CW series One Tree Hill and her lead roles in the
movies, The Hills Have Eyes 2 and Wrong Turn
2: Dead End. It’s not auditioning for these roles
though that makes Daniella nervous these days but
rather, “I’m nervous every day because I am a New
Yorker who has to drive in LA every day!”
She tells us that she does not really have a
routine or method for preparing for a day’s shoot as
each day always brings something new with new
people and scenarios that happen on set. “I’ve
come to realize that what works best for me is to
come in open and ready for anything. If I come to
set prepared having done all my work beforehand,
I feel open and free to let it all go and trust that the
preparation is all there and then I can play.” Like
play is how she makes her work look, effortless and
so real, obviously the ultimate goal of any actor.
Most recently, as Dr. Landry de La Cruz in season
one of NBC’s The Night Shift, Daniella divulges
that, “the most interesting aspect of playing that
role was infusing comedy with drama. I’ve usually
just worked on straight up dramas so this was
an incredible opportunity to grow and work on
the comedy muscle-challenging for sure but so >>>