Natalie Martinez (Actor)

Cuban-American model-turned-actress Natalie Martinez rode the crest of fame in the mid-2000s via the rise of My Network, a sixth national U.S. station dedicated to developing, producing and airing English-language telenovelas, modeled after those in Latin America. Two of the station's programs lifted Martinez into the public spotlight: the 2006 Fashion House and the 2007 Saints and Sinners. In the first, Martinez played Michelle Miller, a housewife who aspired to a career as a fashion designer after discovering her husband's infidelity, and subsequently bore witness to the battle of wills between two rival designers at war with each other -- Maria Gianni (Bo Derek) and Sophia Blakely (Morgan Fairchild). Saints and Sinners constituted an attempt to update William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the contemporary setting of Miami Beach, FL. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide