Vanessa Marano stars in the new TV series Switched at Birth, a show about two teen girls who discover they were switched at birth. The 19-year-old actress seems like a newcomer, but actually has more than a few stage and TV credits under her belt. Find out more in her Kidzworld bio!
Commercial Cutie
Vanessa Marano was born in Los Angeles, California and started her career when she was just a toddler, auditioning for commercials. By the age of seven she had scored a regular spot on stage with the Stage Door Theater. It wasn’t long until television came knocking, and Vanessa was cast on the show Without a Trace where she and her younger sister Laura played sisters on the show!
Gilmore Girls to Soap Star
Vanessa’s television acting career was on a roll - she landed lots of small roles on popular TV shows like Malcolm in the Middle and Six Feet Under, and even got a pivotal role in a movie based on a true-life story called The Brooke Ellison Story, about a disabled girl overcoming obstacles.
Eventually Vanessa found a home on the lovable mother-daughter drama Gilmore Girls, playing April Nardini, the precocious secret daughter of Lorelai Gilmore’s love interest, Luke. After appearing on the show for two years, she jumped into roles on the soap opera The Young and the Restless.
Television Teen
After The Young and the Restless Vanessa took small roles on different shows again, like guest starring on the medical drama Private Practice and the supernatural crime drama Medium, when at last she got her wish of starring in her very own show as a lead! She landed the role of Bay Kennish in Switched at Birth on the ABC Family channel. The story revolves around two girls switched in hospital when they’re born, and the teen girls realize they have been living lives that are vastly different from the ones they were destined for! Vanessa spilled about her character to We Love Soaps:
Bay is a difficult character to play. She’s a very spirited teenager, and she’s very stubborn and harsh, and I think the biggest challenge for me was playing her as a protagonist versus an antagonist because you have Daphne who’s so full of life and is happy and light and smart and just really wholesome and good and easy to deal with, and Bay’s very much the polar opposite of that but isn’t a bad person. And I think that was the most difficult thing going into playing Bay for me.
Did You Know...
- Vanessa’s birthday is on Halloween!
- She can speak fluent Italian
Have Your Say
Have you watched Switched at Birth? What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below!
Related Stories
