Jane de Leon

Jane Florence Benitez de Leon (born November 22, 1998) is a Filipino actress, commercial model and philanthropist. She began her acting career after signing up with Star Magic in 2015. She initially played minor roles in films, made several appearances in drama anthologies and eventually landed supporting roles in Halik (2018) and Ang Probinsyano (2021). Her breakthrough came following her portrayal of the titular role in the series Mars Ravelo's Darna (2022). She has received two nominations from PMPC Star Awards for Television for her performances in two Maalaala Mo Kaya episodes: "Medal" and "Doctor Hero".

Early life and background
Jane Florence Benitez de Leon was born on November 22, 1998, in San Pedro, Laguna, Philippines, to Maricor Benitez-De-Leon, a housewife and Ruel Florencio de Leon, a businessman. She is the youngest in the family with an older brother named Francis. Her family was living well growing up, until her father lost his job. This forced her to audition for various modeling and acting projects. De Leon and her family became unfortunate that they couldn't afford basic needs. During her one-on-one interview with columnist Ogie Diaz on one of his YouTube videos, De Leon revealed that she would often sneak out at night, together with her mother to come to Metro Manila for various auditions as her father greatly opposed De Leon's passion for acting. Before becoming a commercial model and actress, De Leon's mother encouraged her to join various beauty pageants. Her father had four other children from his prior relationships namely Ned, Kirox, Carol, and Karen. She attended Sampaguita Village Elementary School and San Roque Elementary School in San Pedro, Laguna for her primary schooling and Sampaguita Village National High School for secondary studies. In 2016, her father died due to lung cancer, after that she went on to pursue her luck for show business.

2013-2017: Early work
De Leon began her career by joining pageants and modeling competitions. She joined Teen Supermodel Philippines in 2013 and finished as a semi-finalist. The following year, De Leon signed with Glamoure Talent Agency Inc. and landed her first TV commercial for the brand Quake Overload. She was discovered by talent manager Tyrone Escalante, who convinced her to venture acting, and started doing acting workshops with Star Magic right after. In 2015, she began playing minor roles in films. Her first film appearance was an uncredited character in the romantic comedy Just The Way You Are. Later in 2015, she played a supporting role in the romantic drama Ex with Benefits. De Leon also auditioned to be part of the noontime show Eat Bulaga! and Simon Fuller's group Now United but lost to Maine Mendoza and Bailey May.

In 2016, she was launched as one of the members of the noontime show It's Showtime 's girl group GirlTrends alongside Loisa Andalio, Maris Racal, and Barbie Imperial. The same year, she made her TV debut in a Wansapanataym episode "Tikboyong", where she played the love interest of McCoy de Leon' s character. She also began appearing occasionally in the drama anthologies Maalaala Mo Kaya and Ipaglaban Mo!. In 2017, De Leon was cast in the action fantasy series La Luna Sangre as Lauren Catapang. The same year, she appeared in two film productions. She played major roles in the slasher film The Debutantes and the advocacy film Jose Bartolome: Guro.

2018-2022: Breakthrough
2018 proved to be a promising year for De Leon. She played the feisty sister of Jericho Rosales' character in the drama series Halik. She also played a supporting role in Jose Javier Reyes' film Walwal. In 2019, she played a cameo role in the film The Heiress. After Liza Soberano backed out due to finger injury, De Leon was announced as the actress to play the title character in the film Darna in July 2019. Director Olivia Lamasan explained that De Leon earned the unanimous vote of ABS-CBN executives and Darna director Jerold Tarog. It was even Tarog who presented De Leon's audition tapes to the executives and according to him, De Leon impressed him for being an "instinctive actress." However, in August 2020, it was announced that the film project would be postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a Darna TV series, also starring De Leon, would be developed in its place.

While the project was indefinitely postponed, De Leon joined the cast of Ang Probinsyano in 2021 where she played the agent Natalia Mante. After seven months on the show, she made her exit and started preparing for her role as Darna. She started vigorous trainings and worked out to prepare for her fight scenes required for the role. She also had to practice modulating her voice for her character's signature yell. In August 2022, Darna finally premiered on television. Her performance was met with praises from critics and viewers. Ryan Oquiza of Rappler called her portrayal as "sincere and genuine". Chito S. Roño stated that he was impressed by De Leon's performance saying: "she has done very well."

2023-present: Recent projects
De Leon starred in the comeback film of the longest-running horror franchise, Shake, Rattle & Roll Extreme (2023) with Iza Calzado and Jane Oineza. It was released at an earlier date after not making it to the Metro Manila Film Festival. While the film received mixed reviews from the critics, her performance was praised. Writing for The Philippine Star, Januar Junior Aguja described De Leon as the highlight of the "Rage" episode, saying her character had "the most interesting character development". Commercially, the film performed moderately at the box-office, grossing ₱52 million. She is set to reunite with Janella Salvador in the upcoming film How to Be A Good Wife.

Philanthropy
In September 2019, De Leon was announced as the winner for the Belo Beauty Special Award at the annual ABS-CBN Ball. During the interview with ABS-CBN, she revealed that instead of taking the proceeds from the award, she decided to give it all to the beneficiary of the said Ball - the social welfare programme, Bantay Bata 163. This foundation aims to protect disadvantaged and at-risk children through a nationwide network of social services. De Leon said that it is better to be an example to help these children, who may have their own ideas on what they want for the future lives. In the same year, De Leon also attended the Red Charity Gala, to raise funds for the Philippine Red Cross, a non-profit humanitarian organization and a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.