Francia Raisa was born and raised in Southern California, and started modeling for print ads and commercials in middle school.  After starring in Bring It On: All or Nothing, she starred in the Nickelodeon film Shredderman Rules.  She also had a lead role in Underground and was the lead in ABC Family’s The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream.  On the hit series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Francia stars as Adrian, the bad girl of the series, and ex-girlfriend of Ricky, the father of Amy’s baby.  In the first season, she hooked up with Jack, the high school jock, and also befriended his ex-girlfriend grace.  After finding her long lost father, Ruben, Adrian may be about to find the guidance she needs to leave her bad-girl ways behind.

Francia recently spoke to the online media about her role on ABC Family’s hit series.

Question>  Could talk about what the success of the show has meant to you, both professionally and personally? What’s it like having a show this successful for your career and what does it mean to you personally?

Francia> Well, personally it feels like I’ve achieved a lot.  I’ve only been in this business for four years, so that’s a short amount of time for an actor and to have a TV show and to have a successful show, I just feel like I’ve accomplished one of my goals.  I feel really proud of myself and my family is proud of me, so that’s great.  Professionally it’s helped me a lot actually.  A lot of people are in tune with the show because of its success and they’re aware of it and if they haven’t seen it they’ve at least heard of it, so it gives me more of an opportunity to meet people and people have me in mind for their projects and stuff, so we’ll see what happens with it along the way. 

Question> Can you tell us, without going into any spoilers, in general terms, what Adrian is going to be up to for the rest of the season?

Francia> Well, Adrian gets a new love interest and it’s a pretty interesting one, so we’ll see how you guys react about it.

Question> Among the teens in the high school who are you the most like or who were you the most like?  Are you like Adrian or like maybe one of the others a little more? 

Francia> I was like Amy inside, but I acted like Adrian, except for the slutty part.  I didn’t do that, but as far as the cocky part and just being a little vindictive and being sneaky and stuff, I did act like her a couple of times and then how emotional she gets at times about her family and just stuff in general.  I was a lot like her, so I’d compare myself more to Adrian.

Question> Who among your co-stars have you enjoyed working with the most or which scenes have you had the most fun doing?

Francia> That’s a tough one, because I love working with everyone.  I mean Megan and I had a car scene one night and we were there until like midnight or 1:00 in the morning and we had so much fun together and then with Daren; he’s such a dork, so we have fun together.  I mean those are the two people that I mainly have scenes with, but everyone is just so much fun, so it’s hard to choose.

Question> Do you put people you have known into the role, or is Adrian your own character? 

Francia> It’s funny, because every time I run into people from high school I always tell them; because I went to Alemany High School and I always say, “Wow, did that school help me a lot with my character,” because I knew a lot of people similar to Adrian and then I did put myself a little into her.  I mean I feel like in every character we put a little of ourselves into it, so that helped me a lot.

Question> Where do you see Adrian ending up?

Francia> I see her, hopefully, getting together with Ricky and finally being happy and seeing her family get together and her having a change of heart of how she’s living her life and the way she’s acting. 

Question> What made you want to be a part of this show?

Francia> The whole concept.  I really enjoy the whole concept of just everything; every character had different issues that they dealt with, realistic issues that teens deal with, especially Adrian.  I really wanted to play her because I saw it so much in high school.  I went through it.  I saw it.  I cried about it and I really felt like it was great that a show like this finally came up in the air and it was realistic and people could relate to it, because I know when I dealt with stuff if I saw someone else going through it it was easier for me to deal with it, so I personally think it’s great for teenagers and I wish I had it when I was in high school.

Question> Did you have any reservations about playing the part?

Francia> No, none at all whatsoever.  I mean everything they throw at me I’m like, “Go for it.  Let’s go for it,” because I was that girl.  Like I said before, when you see someone else going through it it makes you think about it in a different way, like you can never give yourself advice.  You can never follow advice you give to other people; it’s only when you see it happening to someone else that you’re like, “Okay.  I see now what can happen, what can become of this,” you know?

Question> What are your thoughts about what younger viewers might think about the pregnancy on the show?

Francia> There’s been a lot of contradiction.  Some people are like, “High school is not like this.  It’s so stupid, blah, blah, blah,” but other people are like, “This is true.”  I hope that they look at the teen pregnancy and they really think about their actions before they do anything.  I know that sex is going on a lot in high school.  I know because my sister is still in high school.  She’s a sophomore and she has told me stories that her classmates have done and it blows my mind, so I really hope that they look at the pregnancy.  She only did it once.  It lasted two seconds and look what happened.  The rest of her life changed.  So I really hope that they look at that and they’re like, “Okay, maybe I should cool down a bit.” 

Question> Right on.  Also, what would you like to see happen with Adrian this season? 

Francia> I want her to change her life around a little bit.  She’s a very smart girl and I hope that people see more of that in her.  She’s really emotional.  She’s really a sweet gal.  I mean you see a little bit of that when she’s at home and she breaks down to her dad and to Ricky a bit, so I hope she comes out, but I mean she’s fun.  I love playing her.  I love playing her when she’s bad and she has those moments, but I do want to see her change her life around with her family and stuff. 

Question> What is the best part about playing her?

Francia> The bad stuff.  When I say raunchy stuff or like when I flirted with the counselor in the first season.  That was fun.  I mean, come on, everyone has a little Adrian in them and we all want to do it at some point. 

Question> Which of the adult cast members do you like playing with the most?

Francia> I love Mark Derwin.  He is so funny.  I can’t work because he’s hysterical.  He’s great.  Then I really love working with Paola Turbay, who plays my mother.  She’s just really smart and I enjoy talking to her and she gives great advice and stuff.  I mean they’re all great and Philip as well, who plays my father, he is a teenager at heart. 

Question> What are some funny or embarrassing moments that you have had on the set? 

Francia> Wow.  Funny moments.  We played a prank on Allen, who plays Henry on the show.  We kept telling him that he needed to be on set when he really didn’t need to be there and the director kept pushing him aside and kept putting him behind the camera and he was just standing there like a loser, being like, “Okay, what’s going on?  What am I doing?  You don’t need me,” but even the ADs and everyone were in on it.  That was the funniest part, because of his reaction and stuff like that.  Embarrassing moments:  I’m really bad at thinking of those, but I mean we just have fun moments.  I think one time we impersonated Brittney Spears and Megan played Brittney Spears and me and Amy Rider were her dancers.  I mean we do silly stuff like that. 

Question> If you could remake any movie or TV show what would it be and who would you play?

Francia> Selena and I’d play Selena. 

Question> What was your inspiration to start acting?

Francia> Soap operas, Spanish soap operas.  I saw them and I was like, “That’s what I want to do for the rest of my life.”  Then when I got older I saw the movie 13 and I saw the message that it sent to people and that made me want to do it even more, because I was like film and acting and just all of that send such a big message and has such an impact on people I want to

be a part of that. 

Question>  How is fame affecting you since you’ve been on the show?

Francia> It’s weird.  It’s awesome, but it’s weird.  I mean it’s weird walking down the street and people are pointing at you and whispering and they’re like, “Oh, my gosh. I love you.  You’re my role model.”   I’m like, “Really?  Me?  Little old me?”  It’s awkward, but it’s fun.  I enjoy it. 

Question> How do you feel about having as many viewers as  Gossip Girl and 90210?

Francia> Amazing.  I’m not going to lie; I was a little worried just because all of the advertisement and stuff that Gossip Girl and 90210 have.  Gossip Girl was such a popular book.  I mean I even read it growing up, so I was really nervous, especially when we got on their time slot and knowing that we’re up there and our ratings are even better than theirs, it’s a great feeling. I really enjoy it.  I’m not going to lie. 

Question> What do you think are the most realistic portrayals of high school on the show?

Francia> Everything, believe it or not.  I mean it’s just like what Adrian goes through and what Grace goes through and Amy and stuff.  I mean, it’s realistic and I think we just deal with it in a realistic way.  I’m not saying that everyone deals with it the same after the show or whatever, but we’re just realistic about the stuff.  Believe it or not, it happens.  I went to school with a couple of girls that got pregnant during high school.  I know one that had four abortions by the time we graduated. 

Question> Which episode of the show so far has been your favorite? 

Francia> It hasn’t come up; the next episode that’s about to show up.  I have a really intense scene with Ricky and I really got to go deep in there and picture something that I never wanted to picture.  It was fun.  It was a challenge for me and I really enjoyed that.  I love challenges, so the next one.

Question> How did you first get discovered?

Francia> I was a dancer at a studio called Millennium.  I still dance there.  I was back-up dancing for an artist and I met these two girls, who were also back-up dancing.  One was actually dating him and they were telling me how they were into commercials and they did TV shows and they did print work and all of this stuff.  I was like, “Whoa!  I kind of want to get into that, too.  How do you do that?”  They told me about their manager and coincidentally she was looking for a Latin girl who spoke Spanish.  I met with her, signed with her and shortly after that I booked Bring It On. 

Question> Is there an actor or actress that you look or looked up to?

Francia> Oh, yes.  I definitely, definitely look up to Jennifer Lopez and her career, how it skyrocketed.  I definitely look up to Angelina Jolie.  I love Adam Sandler and I love all of his work, DeCaprio; I mean all of the amazing ones. 

Question> Do you have any other passions besides acting?

Francia> Dance.  I love dancing and I actually love writing.  I forgot that I wrote actually and then I found a paper that I had written in high school and I was like, Wow!  I’m a pretty good writer, so I’m going to start getting back into that. 

Question> Is there any specific type of work that you’d like to do in the future? 

Francia> I mean in the future I, obviously, definitely want to do a dance film or something involving martial arts, but I really like where I’m going right now as far as hitting teenagers and setting an example for them and stuff like that.  So films like 13 or so I would love to do. 

The Secret Life of the American Teenager airs Mondays at 8:00/7:00 central.