TWEEN SCENE
A family friend sent snapshots of Denise Vasi, the newest star of VH1’s hit drama Single Ladies, to a modeling agency when she was just 12 years old. Consequently, the Brooklyn native spent her teenage years modeling for brands such as Target and Olay. Nature, however, altered the path of the Greek, Puerto Rican, and Dominican beauty. “When I was at Ford Models,” she explains, “they sent me to acting classes when I was 15 because they knew that I was never going to get taller.”
SUDSY START
Once she turned her full attention to acting, Vasi landed in Pine Valley as the prostitute-turned-housewife Randi Morgan Hubbard on the soap opera All My Children. Off-screen she clicked with Susan Lucci of Erica Kane fame. “She’s awesome. I always feel like I need to let people know that she’s even more beautiful with no makeup on.” Vasi also discovered that they both suffer from extreme wanderlust, and found herself swapping travel secrets with the TV legend.
FAN OUT
“When you’re making TV,” laughs the L.A.-based actress, “there’s not very much time to watch TV. “ Thank goodness her fans do. When Stacey Dash announced her exit from Single Ladies, Vasi says, “I had a lot of fans tweeting and Facebooking me: ‘OMG, you should go on this show.’”