Photo: Courtesy of Morgan Miller
If Danielle Alonso is what we’ll find in a post-apocalyptic landscape, we have no problem putting down stakes there. The Puerto-Rican, Peruvian beauty and star of ABC’s end-of-the-world drama Revolution, was born and raised right here in New York City and is making huge splash all over the entertainment and fashions worlds.
The former Ford model has graced the covers of such top titles as Seventeen Magazine and was the beautiful face on campaigns for Clairol, Cover Girl, Volkswagen and more since she was only 15.
But while beauty and fashion were a natural for Alonso, acting was her driving ambition. “My mother introduced me to the movies when I was just a little Catholic school girl,” says the statuesque, athletic and now, accomplished actress with a growing body of impressive work both on the big and small screens. “I was so impressed by great actors like Marlon Brando and Clint Eastwood…I just wanted to be like them and be a part of these magical films.”
And if such testosterone-fueled heroes seem an odd fit for such a modern-day, feminine icon, you should also be aware that Alonso can kick your butt. She is a fourth-degree black belt in karate and her Revolution rebel fighter, Nora Clayton is as natural fit as an evening gown.
“I love doing my own stunts,” she says. “Fight scenes, sword fights…it’s like being a kid again.”
When off-camera, she save her fighting for the protection of animals as a spokesperson for PETA. “I’ve done anti-leather campaigns and whenever there’s an event that I can attend, I make sure that I’m there.”
And when she’s not, she’s driving back coast-to-coast, and then some to come back home from Revolution’s North Carolina location where she’s spent the last nine months, New York City where her mom and the rest of her family live and LA where she’s piling up new credits to an already impressive career which includes TV titles like Alias, Friday Night Lights and film roles in such big screen hits as The Hills Have Eyes II, and the upcoming indie film, Re-Kill.
“I always make time to come home to New York,” she says. “Growing up in a city where you’re exposed to so much culture and art helped me so much in my career. I can never be away for too long.”
-by Mike Hammer
