Charlotte Ayanna (born Charlotte Lopez; September 25, 1976) is a Puerto Rican-American actress, author and former beauty queen who won Miss Teen USA 1993.

Early life

Ayanna was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but moved to Vermont at an early age. She had a troubled childhood, spending sixteen years in foster homes after her mother, Emma, was judged to be mentally unfit to look after her children. In 1994, at age 17, she was adopted into a foster home. She has since become a spokeswoman for foster children.

Education

Attended the University of California, Irvine.

Career

Her first national exposure was in 1993, when she became Miss Teen USA. Following her pageant career, she worked with author Susan Dworkin to write a book, Lost in the System (1996), about her experiences as a foster child and pageant winner. Lopez then transitioned into acting, making guest appearances on episodes of various television series, including three episodes of Weird Science and one episode of Entourage. Her first acting credit, after changing her name to Charlotte Ayanna, was her appearance in an October 1998 episode of Profiler. She also appeared in the music video for fellow Puerto Rican Ricky Martín's hit "She's All I Ever Had". Her film roles include: a brief appearance as a fatality in Jawbreaker (1999); The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999); a stripper in Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000); Love the Hard Way (2003) with Adrien Brody; and a sexy vampiress in the horror direct-to-video movie The Insatiable (2007). Her last known acting role was in the film Christmas in Compton (2012). Penultimately she was in Rain from Stars, filmed in 2010 but not released until 2013.

Personal life

After her pageant career ended and her book had been published, she chose to change her surname from Lopez to Ayanna, which she states means "blessed" in Cherokee.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

In 2002 she won the Best Actress award at the Valenciennes International Festival of Action and Adventure Films for Love the Hard Way (2001) tied with Kajol for Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001).