When You’re Hot…
Sonya Balmores is definitely hot after appearing on the covers of three magazines and being cast in a new TV show. “The show is a TV drama about the relationship between four surfer girls trying to become pro, and they kind of scored a sponsorship to train and ride for this fictitious surfing company,” explains Balmores.
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Sonya Balmores checks out two
dragon boats at Ala Moana
Lights! Camera! Action! It’s been a whirlwind year for local beauty Sonya Balmores. The 19-year-old surfer girl who doesn’t like to wear makeup has been on three national magazine covers this year - Women’s Health
“The show is a TV drama about the relationship between four surfer girls trying to become pro, and they kind of scored a sponsorship to train and ride for this fictitious surfing company,” explains Balmores. “My character, Kai, is actually from Hawaii, and so it fits me pretty well. I’m a lot like her in a way, so it’s going to be fun to play her. When I first heard about it, I thought, hey they stole my life, they better pick me. But I’m just glad they picked somebody from Hawaii. The rest of the girls are from the Mainland, and their characters too.”
Balmores, a student at Hawaii Pacific University studying visual communications, is taking the fall semester off from school for filming which begins this month on West Oahu.
Mom Malana, sister Lila and Sonya
Boarding School is scheduled to start airing in April on The N channel, a nighttime network for teens. In Hawaii, The N is available from digital cable operators (Oceanic Time Warner channel 447) and satellite providers (DirecTV channel 298 and Dish Network channel 169).
Balmores, who has been modeling since she was 13, credits her agent Cindy Kauanui of Jet Set Management Group Inc. in San Diego for her big break. Locally, she’s a model with Kathy Muller Agency for print work only.
“I was always drawn to Sonya,” explains Kauanui, who has known the Balmores family for many years. “Even as a little girl she had this tangible combination of inner confidence and natural beauty. She’s unaffected by her success - maintaining a sweetness and pureness you fall in love with immediately. Plus she has the cutest little dimple on her right cheek.”
Kama’aina can also catch this young rising star on the cover of the newest issue of local fashion magazine SMART, and on the cover of an upcoming issue of the Ala Moana Center magazine.
“My dream job, I could never put in a box and say I want to be a lawyer or a doctor, but I’ve always said that I want to live and work in Hawaii,” says Balmores. “So it’s pretty amazing that I got a job that’s fun - I like to be in front of the camera - and I get to stay here. I don’t have to go to the Mainland or anywhere else to shoot.
Sonya won first runner-up at
Miss Teen USA 2004
She scored well in the
swimsuit competition
“Filming (for Boarding School) is from September through December, so that’s pretty much what I’ll be focusing on these next few months. Just learning how to act and becoming a sponge and soaking up everything because I need to step it up and prove to the Hollywood people that I can act.”
Balmores, whose ethnic makeup is Filipino, Irish and American Indian, was also crowned Miss Hawaii Teen USA last year, and finished first runner up at Miss Teen USA.
“The pageant opened up millions of doors for me,” she says. “Actually Shelley Hennig, who was Miss Teen USA, got offered a part with an MTV reality
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