 First Titans Episode:Pilot Birth Date: November 12, 1974 Ethintisity: half-Filipino and half-Spanish Schooling: Graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania You know her as: NYPD Blue’s sexy secretary, Gina Colon, a role that, unfortunately, never had her stealing bare-butt screen time from Detective Sipowicz. Acting up: Brooklyn-born, she was expected to be a professional or go into business, like the rest of her family. The irony is that I tend to play MBA types. Now my parents are waiting for me to play a doctor. Name game: Lourdes is a good Catholic name, but ever since Madonna’s baby, people ask me if I changed it to be hip. Do they think it was hip to have to explain my name to boys at seventh-grade dances? About Samantha: The driven and capable Samantha works at Williams Global Enterprises as Richard’s executive assistant. About Lourdes: "She's ambitious and has got some real bite to her," says Lourdes Benedicto regarding her character, Samantha Sanchez, the young, driven executive assistant to "Titans" patriarch Richard Williams. "I guess I'd call her the family outsider who is trying hard to make something of herself." Benedicto is perhaps best known for the two years she spent in the role of police administrative assistant Gina Colon on the hit detective series "NYPD Blue," a character she fondly remembers as "the ingenue with an edge." An only child, Benedicto is a first generation American born of Filipino and Dominican parents in Brooklyn, New York. She was raised in Flushing, Queens, the product of a large, close-knit extended family that envisioned her following in their professional footsteps as a doctor, lawyer or businesswoman. However, during her 13 years at an all-girl Catholic school in Manhattan, she blazed her own trail and developed interests in both the athletic and the aesthetic that included playing tennis, playing the piano and -- above all -- acting. And it was her desire to succeed as an actress that compelled Benedicto to part with family tradition and pursue her dream. She was accepted to the conservatory drama program at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pennsylvania and spent the next four years appearing in numerous stage productions and honing her acting skills. Eight weeks after receiving her bachelor of fine arts degree, Benedicto was cast in "NYPD Blue." Additional television appearances include a guest-starring role on NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and the television movies "Resurrection Boulevard" and "Gryphon." Her feature-film credits include the roles of Chloe Frost in the teen comedy "Drive Me Crazy" and Vola in the dark comedy "Permanent Midnight." Benedicto resides in Los Angeles. |