Isabella Castillo

Isabella Castillo was born on 23 December 1994, daughter of singer^[1] Delia Díaz de Villegas^[2] and percussionist^[1] José Castillo. Her older sister is Giselle, a pianist and music teacher.^[1] In 1997, at the age of three, she emigrated to Belize, moving to Miami, Florida, some months later. At the age of five, she debuted as a singer in one of her mother's concerts: from that moment, she began to take dancing, singing and acting lessons,^[3] studying music at Musical Procenter and winning four times the Grand Prize at the Youth Fair of the Florida International University.^[3] On 26 March 2005, she won the first prize as Most Promising in the Children Singing Division at the USA World Showcase^[3] and on 15 July, she took the stage on the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami in the musical Fantasia en Disney; she also participated in the contest Best New Talent in Los Angeles and in the concert offered by the Israeli Embassy for Cuban people living in the USA.^[3] In 2007, she gained the Magnet Outstanding Performance recognition at the South Miami Middle Community School^[3] and she was invited to honor the neo-elected president of Israel Shimon Peres.^[3] Again in 2007, persuaded by the producer Óscar Gómez, she started an intensive course of acting with Cuban actress Lili Rentería, preparing for the audition in Madrid for the musical El diario de Ana Frank – Un canto a la vida;^[3][4] moving in Spain with her family, after three rounds of auditions she was given the main role.^[5] The musical, which opened on 28 February 2008,^[3] won her the Gran Via Award as Best Revelation in a Musical.

Back in the United States in 2009, she began her acting career in Telemundo on the telenovela El fantasma de Elena (2010), in which she played as seventeen-year-old girl Andrea Girón;^[1] at the end of Elena, she got the role of Grachi, the main character of the homonymous telenovela of Nickelodeon Latin America.^[6][7][8] During the broadcast, in February 2012, of the second of three seasons,^[9] Castillo participated in the musical Grachi: El show en vivo. Thanks to Grachi, between 2011 and 2012, Castillo won the Favorite Actress award at the Kids' Choice Awards México,^[10] Kids' Choice Awards Argentina and Meus Prêmios Nick, becoming also the first to win the Favorite Latin Artist award at the 2012 Kids' Choice Awards.^[11]

On 21 February 2013, she signed with Warner Music Latina for her first album, Soñar no Cuesta Nada, released on 23 April.^[12] In March, Castillo won the Favorite Latin Artist Award for the second time at the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards.^[13] In September 2014, singer Patricio Arellano published his third album, featuring a duet with Castillo titled "Que duermas conmigo".^[14] On 21 October, it was announced that Castillo was cast in the telenovela Tierra de reyes and portrayed the dual role of Alma Gallardo and Verónica Saldívar. She also appeared on ¿Quién es quién?. Meanwhile, she acted in Araceli Álvarez de Sotomayor's Tacones enanos, a Spanish theater play, from 9 December 2015 to 10 January 2016.^[15][16]

In 2019 she received the McAllen Texas Keys of the City.^[17][18]