IF you recognize actress Jaclyn DeSantis, it’s because she played Marly on FOX’s ill-fated Luis Guzman-starring sitcom, “Luis.” She auditioned for the role but didn’t get the part until the night before shooting.

“The network offered the part to this girl, and I got it by fluke,” she admits. “Thank God that girl from Canada’s papers didn’t go through!” The L.A.-based actress, whose mother is Puerto Rican, was raised in Huntington, Long Island, and was taught to DJ by her Sicilian dad.
“He owned a night club and taught me when I was young,” she says.

DeSantis has been acting since she was five-years-old, along the way scoring minor roles in films like the campy “Road Trip” and on TV’s “Law and Order,” a launching pad for so many up-and-coming actors.

But her first starring role is in this month’s indie film “Bomb the System” (Palm Pictures), in which she plays a graffiti writer’s girlfriend. The gritty film, which chronicles a graffiti artist’s love for his illicit craft and the police’s efforts to thwart the spread of the aerosol art movement, has already made the rounds in the festival circuit.

Last year, it won awards for “Best Feature” at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, “Best Director” at the HBO Urbanworld Film Festival and “Best First Feature” at the Independent Spirit Awards.

DeSantis also plays Carlito’s love interest in the much-hyped “Carlito’s Way: The Beginning,” which will be released this fall, but it’s “Bomb the System” that has her ecstatic.

Her role in the indie isn’t a big stretch. DeSantis tagged while in high school and majored in Fine Art at New York’s School of Visual Arts, later quitting her studies to focus on acting.

“I had a little black book for a while [which graffiti writers use to practice their lettering styles],” she confesses. “You ain’t seeing it and no one else is either."[Via perrealo.com]

Labels: MinxoftheMonth, women