Liza Soberano

Hope Elizabeth Soberano (born January 4, 1998) is an American and Filipino actress. Known for playing supporting characters in comedies and dramas as a teenager, she has since expanded her repertoire to leading roles in film and television. She has received many accolades, including a FAMAS Award, a Star Award, and six Box Office Entertainment Awards. Tatler magazine named her one of the most influential people in Asia in 2022 and 2023.

Born in Santa Clara, California, Soberano relocated to Quezon City and began her career as a model at thirteen. She made her television debut in the fantasy anthology series Wansapanataym (2011), before her breakthrough in the second season of the drama series Got to Believe (2013). She gained wider recognition for portraying a fruit plantation farmer in the romantic drama series Forevermore (2014), which was the first of her many collaborations with actor Enrique Gil.

Soberano found commercial success in the several romantic films, including My Ex and Whys (2017), for which she earned the Box Office Entertainment Award for Box Office Queen. Attempting to shed her image as an on-screen couple with Gil she sought roles in other genres and featured in the animated series Trese (2021). She returned to California to pursue an acting career in Hollywood in 2022 and has since starred in the horror comedy Lisa Frankenstein (2024). Soberano has been described by media publications as one of the most beautiful Filipino actresses of her generation. She is vocal about gender equality, women's rights, and mental health.

Early life and background
Hope Elizabeth Soberano was born on January 4, 1998, in Santa Clara, California. She is the only child of John Castillo Soberano and Jacqulyn Elizabeth Hanley. Her father is Filipino and a native of Pangasinan, whereas her mother is an American from San Jose. Shortly after her birth, Soberano's parents separated, and she was raised by her maternal grandparents Jeff, who served in the U.S. Navy, and Divina, a bank teller. She has five half-brothers and three half-sisters from her parents' second marriages. Soberano and her grandparents later moved to Visalia. She considered them as adoptive parents and has stated "it always made me feel awkward when I would [say] grandma or grandpa"; she instead would refer to them as her "mommy and daddy".

As a child, Soberano wanted to become a nurse or enlist in the U.S. Army. She was drawn to the latter because of her maternal grandfather's background in military service. She became interested in modeling after watching the reality series America's Next Top Model, but saw it an unlikely career choice. At age ten, she relocated to the Philippines and lived with her father in Pangasinan. Soberano developed an interest in acting after watching Filipino drama shows such as Tayong Dalawa, Mara Clara, and Agua Bendita, despite not knowing the language. After several years, the family moved to Quezon City. At thirteen, she began appearing in television commercials and print media. Around this time, a talent scout found her on social media and introduced her to artist manager Ogie Diaz. However, a week before they met, she had signed a one-year deal with GMA Network's talent management group. At Diaz's urging, Soberano asked to be released from her contract, which then had a thirty-day waiver; she eventually signed with Diaz and he recommended that Soberano learn to speak in Filipino in order to get acting jobs.

2011–2015: Early roles and breakthrough
Introduced as Hope Soberano, she began her career with a minor part in a 2011 episode of the fantasy anthology series Wansapanataym. The following year, she received her first part as a series regular when she joined the cast of the drama series Kung Ako'y Iiwan Mo (2012). Playing the supporting role of Jake Cuenca's character, she found being in the show to be an important learning experience which shaped her work ethic, and said in a 2018 interview that since earning her first salary from the project, she became the family breadwinner. During the time, she underwent a series of acting workshops and took on singing lessons. Before her cinematic debut in the coming-of-age romantic comedy Must Be... Love (2013), she adopted the stage name Liza Soberano, taken from her middle name, at the suggestion of Star Creatives executive Malou Santos. In Must Be... Love, Soberano played a young woman caught in a love triangle between Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo; reviews criticized the film and their performances for the overdone clichés and formulaic plot. Later that year, she appeared in the romantic drama She's the One (2013), co-starring Dingdong Dantes and Bea Alonzo.

Soberano's breakthrough came when she portrayed the love interest of Padilla's character in the second season of the drama series Got to Believe, which premiered in January 2014. Although she considered the role a turning point in her career, Soberano found it disconcerting to play the "third wheel" for a second time. Writing for News.ABS-CBN.com, Mary Ann Bardinas was appreciative of her performance, calling it a "remarkable stint". Soberano next starred opposite Enrique Gil in Cathy Garcia-Molina's romantic drama series Forevermore (2014). Set in La Trinidad, Benguet, the show tells the story of two teenagers from different social classes who fall in love. She portrayed a fruit farmer who supervises Gil's character after being forced to work on the plantation. The production received a Star Award for Best Primetime Drama Series nomination, and Soberano was named Most Promising Female Star at the 2015 Box Office Entertainment Awards.

The year 2015 saw Soberano star in two films with Gil: Just the Way You Are and Everyday I Love You. In Theodore Boborol's romantic comedy Just the Way You Are, she played an awkward and unattractive American transplant who is seduced by an egotistic womanizer (played by Gil) as a result of a bet. The film is an adaptation of Kimberly Joy Villanueva's Wattpad romance novel The Bet. Critical reaction to the film was negative; Oggs Cruz from Rappler termed it "completely generic" and "utterly forgettable", though he credited Soberano for lending her appeal and charm. She then starred in the Mae Cruz-Alviar-directed romantic drama Everyday I Love You. Filmed in Negros Occidental, it featured her as a woman whose boyfriend (played by Gerald Anderson) falls into a coma and she later falls in love with another man. Rito Asilo noted how much Soberano's "disarming dramatic perspicacity and appealing presence" aided the narrative. Abigial Mendoza of the Philippine Entertainment Portal wrote, "She is a natural who displays the right restraint, pleasing to watch all the more since she doesn’t try too hard." Both films were commercially successful, each grossing over ₱100million (US$million), and earned Soberano and Gil the Box Office Entertainment Award for Most Popular Love Team.

2016–2020: Rise to prominence
Dolce Amore, a romantic drama series shot in Rome and Florence, was Soberano's television project of 2016, which reunited her with Gil and Garcia-Molina. It tells the story of Serena Marchesa, a young aristocrat who is forced to marry her childhood friend (played by Matteo Guidicelli) but leaves for Manila and falls in love with an impoverished man working as a male escort. As with Forevermore, Gil again played her love interest. In preparation for the part, Soberano learned to speak Italian and worked closely with co-actor Ruben Maria Soriquez, who served as the cast's dialect coach. Nestor Torre Jr. of the Philippine Daily Inquirer took note of her acting versatility and praised her as the production's highlight. The critic Gina Marissa Tagasa described her as an "intelligent actress, giving more beyond what the scene demands". For the role, Soberano was nominated for a Star Award for Best Drama Actress.

The romantic drama My Ex and Whys (2017), with Gil as the male lead, featured Soberano as a blogger who must work with her ex-boyfriend as part of a job assignment. The director, Garcia-Molina, wanted Soberano to dissociate from the persona she portrayed in Dolce Amore, and thus asked her to "act lighter" and play the part by deglamorizing. She found herself challenged by her character's pain and struggled to draw from real-life experience, as she had never experienced a break-up. The writer Rhea Manila Santos commended her characterization and reinvention, and Mari-An Santos of the Philippine Entertainment Portal particularly liked the duo's chemistry, believing their scenes together to be some of the film's strongest parts. Conversely, Oggs Cruz from Rappler dismissed the unoriginal plot and thought Soberano's performance lacked depth. With earnings of more than ₱400million (US$million), My Ex and Whys was one of the highest-grossing Filipino films of the year. Soberano subsequently received the Box Office Entertainment Award for Box Office Queen. Also that year, she took on a starring role in an episode of the anthology series Maalaala Mo Kaya, portraying Pia Wurtzbach, who became known for winning Miss Universe 2015.

In 2018, Soberano starred as the tribal heroine Ganda in the epic fantasy series Bagani. Set in the fictional kingdom of Sansinukob, the show follows a series of conflicts among the noble warriors from five regions of the realm. It featured flight sequences that required her to perform stunts while strapped into harnesses, and to prepare for the role, she trained in wushu. While filming, Soberano injured herself and sustained an arm fracture. The series was heavily criticized by media critics for whitewashing its characters; Soberano's role was meant to be of indigenous Filipino ethnicity. She later defended her heritage, acknowledging that she is part Filipino by way of her father and grew up as one. Despite the backlash, Soberano was nominated for Best Drama Actress at the 2018 Star Awards for Television.

The following year, Soberano continued to collaborate with Gil in the romantic drama Alone/Together (2019), written and directed by Antoinette Jadaone. Playing a college couple who go through a series of relationship struggles, the pair spent some time immersing in academic experiences to prepare; she attended classes at the University of the Philippines Diliman, while Gil visited a hospital to interact with medical students. Pablo Tariman of The Philippine Star praised her multi-layered portrayal of an overwhelmed character, and Oggs Cruz called her a "formidable performer". The film was a commercial success, grossing over ₱380million (US$million) at the box office.

The pair then starred in the romantic drama series Make It with You, which premiered on January 13, 2020. Filmed in Dubrovnik, Croatia, it featured Soberano as a struggling overseas worker and con artist who deceives an undocumented migrant (played by Gil). She was drawn to the idea of exploring a distinct "visual experience" for her character and thus cut her hair short to look drastically different from her performances in the past. In preparation, she watched the film Erin Brockovich (2000) which, in Soberano's view, embodied a "free spirited" persona. The show's production was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in June 2020, following the ABS-CBN broadcast cessation, the series was ultimately cancelled.

2021–present: Career expansion
Dismayed at being typecast as a romantic on-screen pair with Gil, Soberano actively looked for parts in other genres. She found an opportunity with the Netflix animated series Trese (2021), based on Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo's graphic novel. She provided her voice to the titular protagonist Alexandra Trese, a detective who deals with crimes of supernatural origin. Reception of her voice acting was mixed; Kathleen Llemit of The Philippine Star thought that her delivery had "dynamics" but contained "almost the exact same cadence", and Rappler's Emil Hofileña criticized her disjointed performance and considered her miscast. In 2022, Soberano returned to the United States to pursue an acting career in Hollywood. She became aware of a comedy horror film, written by Diablo Cody and directed by Zelda Williams, of which a supporting part was yet to be cast. Soberano initially had doubts, but was eventually encouraged by Williams to pursue the role. She found the script to be "everything that I hoped and dreamed for", calling it an "all-in-one project".

Lisa Frankenstein (2024), starring Kathryn Newton in the title role, is about a misunderstood teenage girl who meets and develops a relationship with a re-animated Victorian-era corpse (played by Cole Sprouse). In the film, Soberano portrayed Taffy, Lisa's step-sister. Drawn to the part's duplicitous nature, she described the role as a "quintessential Type A personality". Soberano collaborated closely with Cody and Williams to create Taffy's origin; and, to adopt the character's mental space, she drew inspiration from teen film genres. The film performed poorly at the box office, but critics were generally enthusiastic about her performance and considered Soberano to be a scene-stealer among the cast. Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times called her the project's "breakout star and true discovery". Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle dismissed the film as an "unfunny, disgusting mess", but deemed Soberano as the only notable aspect of the production.

Also in 2024, Soberano served as a jury member in the inaugural Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival. She will next star, alongside Brandon Perea and Jon Jon Briones, in the coming-of-age drama Patron Saints of Nothing, based on the 2019 novel by Randy Ribay.

Reception and public image
Town & Country has named Soberano as one of Hollywood's "brightest new stars" and "exciting young actors" in 2023. As part of a career analysis, Mariane Perez of Vogue Philippines observed that Soberano began as a young performer "out of relative obscurity", but later emerged as one of the Philippines' most accomplished actresses after starring in several successful films and television series. She is known for playing in a range of roles and Perez credits that she is "imbued with a certain self-awareness" in her performances. Perez praised Soberano for stepping outside her comfort zone by accepting parts that might initially seem against type, as she had done in her film debut in Hollywood. Sophie Agustin from Cosmopolitan Philippines wrote that at the beginning of her career, Soberano was often typecast into playing "third wheel characters", an apparent limitation she escaped following her collaborations with Enrique Gil playing lead roles. In a discussion of her career trajectory, the Philippine Entertainment Portal has profiled her as a "top-rating prime-time actress [and] a blockbuster movie star", citing her talent and diligent work as significant factors in her rise. The writer Romy Antonette Peña Cruz, also from the same publication, attributed Soberano's success as an actress to her willingness to rely on her acting talent rather than her perceived beauty. Regarding her approach to acting, Soberano has commented that she views dissociating from herself as an obvious requirement in her portrayals, remarking, "It's like allowing myself to completely kind of let go of everything that makes me, me."

Analyzing her on-screen persona, Rhea Manila Santos of News.ABS-CBN.com noted that Soberano usually plays "conservative girl-next-door roles", but commended her willingness to "completely reinvent herself". Commenting on her performance in Alone/Together, Pablo Tariman of The Philippine Star called it an "acting so well-defined" which she "immersed into with quiet but smoldering result", while Garcia-Molina, who directed Soberano in My Ex and Whys, considered her "comedic side" to be a revelation. Describing her off-screen personality, actress Kira Balinger praised Soberano's "humble approach to fame", and the Asian Journal writer Monet Lu found her to be "very amiable", adding that "her simplicity just makes her even more attractive". Discussing her traits in a 2022 interview, Soberano has acknowledged that she is a "people pleaser to a fault".

Throughout her career, Soberano has been a frequent collaborator of Gil, appearing in many films and television series with the actor. Together, they were part of a "love team", a romantic on-screen couple from which she has achieved commercial success, bolstering her reputation as one of the Philippines' preeminent talents. However, she struggled to find serious roles or ones that did not involve projects with Gil: "In love teams, you're expected to just be with that one person throughout your career and in your personal life and, like, people don't wanna see you aside with another male actor." Soberano used that fear of being pigeonholed as motivation to build a versatile body of work. She cites actress Dolly de Leon as an inspiration for her acting pursuits after the latter received international acclaim.

Soberano's public image is strongly tied to her perceived beauty and appeal. She has been cited as one of the most beautiful faces in the Philippine entertainment industry by many sources. She has been described by Metro magazine as a style icon, with her "angelic eyes, symmetrical features, a refined nose and lips" as her trademark features. The American Vogue credits the actress for her "carefully curated wardrobe", writing that she embodies "youthful, fresh, and with an understated elegance". In 2017, Soberano topped TC Candler and The Independent Critics's listing of the "100 Most Beautiful Faces in World", and has been included in its annual compilation on eight other occasions—2015 to 2023. She was named the "Most Beautiful Star" by Yes! in 2018, and was recognized by Tatler as one of the most influential people in Asia in 2022 and 2023.

Advocacy
Soberano is a gender equality advocate and supports women's and children's rights. She is vocal about social and political issues, asserting, "I find it so important to start spreading awareness to future generations as early as now". She identifies as a feminist, a concept she argues should not intimidate people because society has always "conditioned women and children to stay quiet when dealing with hardships and struggles". In 2020, she partnered with the human rights organization Gabriela National Alliance of Filipino Women and spoke during the International Day of the Girl Child in favor of free speech and a safer space for young women. This participation led to trolling and red-tagging from military government officials, spreading public misinformation of her being allied with the communist group New People's Army.

Soberano has also lent her support to several charitable organizations such as the ICanServe Foundation, Chosen Children Village, and Anawim Home for the Elderly. She was named a Save the Children Fund Ambassador in 2021, and fronted an awareness campaign in lobbying for the passage of the Raising the Age of Sexual Consent Law, which increased the age of consent from 12 to 16; she worked closely with the bill's sponsors and advocates. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Soberano, along with Gil, raised funds in support of disadvantaged families and children transitioning to e-learning.

Teased as a child for her weight and the color of skin, Soberano takes a stand against body-shaming and bullying. She also promotes mental health, and launched a podcast, titled An Open Mind, which premiered in January 2022 and ran for 12 episodes. In a 2024 interview, Soberano has publicly acknowledged her mental health struggles, stating, "That was coming from like, just years of focusing on work and not really getting to, I guess, be fully present in my childhood." She has campaigned for access to affordable mental health care services for underprivileged communities in the Philippines.

Personal life
Soberano holds dual citizenship of the United States and the Philippines. She began dating Enrique Gil in 2014, and they publicly announced their relationship in an article published by Yes! magazine in 2017. She is reticent to discuss her personal life on social media and refuses to share posts involving her family. On her desire to be private, she has said that she fears unwanted criticisms directed to people close to her. Soberano shares a close relationship with her siblings, in particular her paternal half-brother, Justin, and said: "I would do everything for him". She has expressed her fondness for her profession, but has acknowledged that being a "celebrity" was not something she wanted. When discussing her personal life, she has said that she enjoys domestic routines like grocery shopping, cooking, and doing home repairs.

Soberano joined the Screen Actors Guild in 2024. She has been a spokesperson for many brands, including Maybelline, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, Cetaphil, GCash, and Jollibee Foods Corporation. She also serves as the Chief Advocacy Officer for the digital banking company Maya. Soberano has studied psychology and considered being a mental health counselor.

Acting credits and awards
According to the online portal Box Office Mojo, Soberano's most commercially successful films include Just The Way You Are, Everyday I Love You, My Ex and Whys, and Alone/Together. Her films as a leading actress have grossed over ₱1billion (US$17.3million) worldwide, making her one of the highest-grossing Filipino actors of all time. Soberano's television projects include the primetimes series Kung Ako'y Iiwan Mo, Got To Believe, Forevermore, Dolce Amore, Bagani, and Make It With You.

After her breakthrough, Soberano has been a recipient of six Box Office Entertainment Awards: three times as Most Popular Love Team with Gil, Most Promising Female Star of the Year in 2015, Box Office Queen in 2018, and Princess of Philippine Movies and Television in 2020. She has also been nominated for three Star Awards for Television and two Star Awards for Movies. In addition, she has received two German Moreno citations: the Power Tandem Award from the Star Awards for Television in 2015, and the Youth Achievement Award from the FAMAS Awards in 2020.