Thora Birch was born in Brooklyn, NY, and raised in Northampton, MA, but admittedly retains the Puerto Rican accent of her household. She started her career when she was just 15 years old. She walked in to the field of modelling, working in Italy as well as for British VOGUE out of Paris. Inspite of being quite successful in this field she stiil wanted to act.
Returned to States, her break came as India, the Puerto Rican girlfriend, in "Spike in Bensonhurst" (1988). The next year, she was Bond Girl Lupe Lamora in "License to Kill". TV work followed, including the USA network movie "Silhouette" (1990) and the HBO anthology, "Prison Stories: Women Behind Bars" (1991), in which Soto's dramatic skills were on display. Although she had supporting parts in the films "The Mambo Kings" (1992) and the direct-to-video "Hostage" (also 1992), Soto continued to try her hand at TV in the series "Harts of the West" (CBS, 1993-94). In the latter, she was featured as the granddaughter of a Native American owner of the town's general store.
In 1995, Soto found herself in two high-profile features, opposite Johnny Depp in "Don Juan De Marco" and as the "secret weapon" Princess Kitana in "Mortal Kombat". She also returned to her modeling roots posing for the SPORTS ILLUSTRATED swimsuit issue and appeared on its accompanying TV special. She also landed a supporting role in Michael Cimino's "Sunchaser" (1996), starring Woody Harrelson.
Talisa was married to Costas Mandylor (May 1997 - 2000). She has dated Benjamin Bratt since 2001, when they met on the set of their movie "Pinero". They got married on April 13, 2002 in San Francisco. At present she is living with Benjamin Bratt. |
|
|
