Portugal

Catarina Tareja Rodriguez (born October 5th, 1984) is an actress born in Lisbon, Portugal. She started work when she was nineteen years old with her debut role in Auswahl Corporation's film Make Believe. Since then, she has moved over to California, USA to find more work and be closer to the location of Auswahl Corporation, the company she signed up to. Catarina has been nominated and won various awards over the years, with her most well-known roles being Cerise Harvey in Reject (2009; won Best Actress) and Yolanda Tipton in Yours Truly (2004-2006, popular television series).

Early Life
Catarina Tareja Rodriguez was born in Lisbon, Portugal. Her mother’s name is Eufemia Tareja Rodrigeuz while her father’s name remains disclosed. Catarina stated in an interview once that she never knew her real father and that she’s never going to seek him out either. Her mother had Catarina when she was 18 years of age and for the first seven years of Catarina’s childhood, she was raised by her mother and grandmother. She quickly developed an interest in sports when she started school and was said to prefer the company of boys. Catarina believed that due to not knowing her father nor having any brothers, she found them oddly fascinating and was quick to fashion herself into an energetic, rough tomboy. However, she had a passion for acting as well and did drama classes and performed in many of her school productions.

When she was 12 years old, her mother met another man whom she married. Catarina refused to give his name and stated that the marriage only lasted two years. The man was said to have turned abusive and abused both Catarina and her mother. Eventually the man was arrested and while Eufemia and Catarina were recommended to move away from Lisbon and start a new life, Eufemia refused to go. Catarina at first stayed with her mother, feeling that she had to take care of her but eventually she was sent to Spain at 16 to go live with relatives there. After graduating high school, Catarina went back to Lisbon, Portugal to go and live with her mother. She said that the feeling of needing to look after her mother just wouldn’t go away but Eufemia wished for Catarina to be free of her.

Catarina then spent a year trying to get work in the acting industry but it was until 2003 that she won the lead role in an Auswahl Corporation film set directly in Lisbon, Portugal. She realised this was her chance to make it in the industry and now lives in California, USA.

Career
Catarina began her career at 19 years old when she beat out many auditions for the Auswahl Corporation made movie Make Believe to get the role of Anabela Cruz. The movie proved successful as she was then immediately signed with the company and moved over to California, America. From there, she was cast as the lead character Yolanda Tipton in the TV series Yours Truly. The show was well-received by critics, who found Yolanda’s character to be the highlight of the series, with her bluntness being a stark contrast to the flighty nature of other characters within the cast. Catarina was said to have been extremely fond of Yolanda’s character, admitting in an interview, “Yolanda had a way of telling things how they are. While the people around her were dishonest, she had a way of seeing to the truth and getting things out in the open. She’s not afraid of being herself. I think more people should be like that, y’know?” In recent interviews, Catarina still states that Yolanda will forever be her favourite role. The series lasted three seasons and rumours floated that there would be a fourth season but Catarina confirmed that it would just be the three seasons, explaining that she wanted to shift to movies for a while.

In 2005, she spent a couple of months back in Portugal filming for a murder mystery programme called O Próximo Passo as the character Chica Almeida, who was presented as a potential love interest for the main character Detective Danilo Castro. However in episode five, Chica’s character was killed off, much to the disappointment of fans. Catarina explained in an interview that her character was never going to stick around and joked that this was the planned fate for all of Danilo’s love interests.

After her years involved in television series, Catarina shifted into movie roles again, with her movie comeback being The Way It Goes in 2007. She played a supporting role (Maria Salazar). The movie was given mixed reviews, but overall Catarina’s acting was well-received. In the same year she played Elena Wilder in the award-winning film Pink Clouds and won Best Supporting Actress. In response to receiving this award, Catarina stated “I’m way way thankful for the award. If only Elena did more stunts! Seriously, with a surname like ‘Wilder’..? [/laughs] But no, Elena’s a totally different girl to me. I liked that however. It’s much more fun acting in many different roles and trying to convey totally different people to who I really am. So winning an award for it’s a real honour; I mean it.”

In 2008, Catarina played the lead character Katy Pearce in Pros and Cons, a romance comedy movie that proved to the media that Catarina really did prefer playing all sorts of different roles. The movie was well-received by critics but they felt Catarina was much more suited to serious roles. Catarina responded to this with “I’d get too much of the same doing that! That was precisely why I did a light-hearted film compared to the ones I did last year.” Then in 2009, Catarina starred in the award-winning film Reject, which won her Best Actress that year. She played Cerise Harvey, a woman who sees it upon herself to get involved with a serial killer to try and get to the bottom of his crimes after suspecting he murdered her cousin. The film received many good reviews and was the main rival against Meraviglie Productions’ Glory and Peace that year. Catarina stated that she loved playing Cerise but said she’d still rather be Yolanda due to Cerise’s ultimate fate being ‘rather nasty’. In 2010, Catarina played Priscilla Wright in the Academy Award Winning film Skimming the Waters, which earned her a nomination for Best Actress.

Despite her increasing success in the film industry, Catarina has expressed interest in getting back into working on television series and desire to play a character ‘similar to Cerise Harvey but with Yolanda’s fierce independence and a hell of a lot more stunts’. Rumour has it that she has been offered a lead role in the upcoming crime drama series CSI: LA.

Personal Life
Catarina (her nicknames include Cat, Rina and her relatives call her Tareja) is said to be incredibly down-to-earth and not particularly concerned with the glitz and the glamour of fame. She is often seen in casual attire walking her Portuguese Podengo (dog) Iago or playing football with members of local clubs. Catarina often likes to visit bars and tea shops, exclaiming an extreme fondness for the drink and that both her and her mother are ‘tea addicts’. She’s incredibly friendly towards her fans and doesn’t mind stopping for autographs and photographs in the slightest.

It’s been said that she has her own personal stylist and make-up artist, due to a lack of own fashion sense. She states, “To be honest, I hate a lot of girly stuff! I don’t like make-up or fashion or accessories all that much. But apparently I’m great to dress up? [/laughs] If it were appropriate to go to the Oscars in jeans and a t-shirt, I so would.” Despite this, Catarina is conscious of having a good figure and regularly works out to keep her shape. According to fans, her best assets are her legs, which Catarina has agreed with. She was said to have gotten them insured for $500, 000 ‘for the laughs’.

She has often been seen out in public hanging out with other guys, but onlookers have consistently stated that she’s never appeared to have been romantically linked with anyone. It’s been commented that she’s ‘dead oblivious’ to romance, but Catarina has expressed herself a lack of interest in romance. Her childhood has said to have been the basis behind this with Catarina once drunkenly stating that ‘no woman needs any man or anyone!’ This has made her rather popular with feminists, which Catarina approves of, believing there aren’t enough independent women out there. It has for this reason that Catarina has never had any confirmed rumours about relationships with her co-stars over the years. When it comes to hanging out with other females, Catarina is said to be quite obsessed with the idea of being a ‘cool big sis’ to those notably younger than her but when it comes to women of her own age, Catarina is less interested in spending time around them.

Catarina claims not to mind who she hangs out with, famous or not, so long as they ‘keep it real’ when with her. She prefers to listen to music that is ‘personal’ to the artist and watch films that are as realistic as possible. Also she is a huge donator to charity, insisting that a certain percentage of her pay always go to select charities such as World Vision.

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