Maria-Elena Laas

With her vivacious screen presence and boundless energy, Maria-Elena Laas steadily became a well known and very well liked actor. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1983, Laas first began modeling at the young age of 13. Even then, Laas knew that her ultimate goal was to branch into acting, and she eventually did so in 1999, making her TV debut on an episode of the series "Pacific Blue" (USA, 1996-2000). She began to pick up steam over the coming years, appearing in films like the comedy "The Hot Chick" (2002) and the thriller "Ghost Writer" (2007) starring David Boreanaz and Alan Cumming. Laas would continue to appear in commercials, memorably starring in both the English and Spanish-language versions of a Garnier commercial. She would later go on to appear in a number of memorable, off-the-wall comedies including "Kill the Habit" (2010), "Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets" (2010), and "Pastor Shepherd" (2010). She would also play an unfortunate victim of a slasher named Maria in the horror film "American Weapon" (2014). Interestingly, Laas was later offered a very similar part in the movie "Unknowns" (2012). When she explained to producers that she would rather not repeat herself, they responded by offering her the role of Detective Rios instead. In 2018, Laas joined the cast of the series "Vida" (Starz! 2018-).