Carmel Magazine

C armel is well known as an under- the-radar place where movie stars can come to relax. It's a place where the civilians are inured to their luminous presence and are more likely to respect their privacy. Some established Hollywood celebrities even take the step of turning their backs on Southern California and choosing this as their primary place of residence. Think Doris Day, Kim Novak, Joan Fontaine, Clint Eastwood, among others. Less common is the phenomenon of a Carmel native leaving this little piece of paradise to take a shot at stardom in Tinseltown. One such up-and-coming actress is Eva Augustina Sinotte. While it would take a while for her to decide that acting was a profession she would choose as her livelihood, Sinotte dabbled in the art as a young girl. "I have two older sisters," she says. "When our parents would go out on weekend dates, we would make home movies." It was while attending Carmel High School that the bug truly bit. "My first play was 'Stage Door'. I realized that this is what I loved to do. It's an adrenaline rush like surfing, skydiving or playing music. It doesn't need to make sense. It just is." Though she didn't study acting there, she attended Monterey Peninsula College and acted in a few productions. Then she took the giant leap, heading south to Hollywood to pur- sue acting full time. Like countless others before her, she thought she would get an agent and be cast in a television show and feature films immediately. "It didn't exactly work out like that," she laughs. "I discovered that all these dreams took more steps than I anticipated, and it was only up to me to make them a reality. I knew that if I worked hard, I could make a professional act- ing career a reality." One contributing factor to Sinotte's success so far is the support she has received from her family. "My parents (Rober t and Rober ta Sinotte) are super encouraging," she says. I have so many friends who did not have that. I realize what a blessing that is. They do have a bit of an old school mentality though, like 'Maybe you should get a part time job.' But right now, I feel like I could always go back to school or create a business." One of her sisters, Britta Francisco, was by then a photographer living in Los Angeles. Her husband is involved in film production and they encouraged Sinotte to pursue extra roles. Armed with headshots shot by her sister, Sinotte started shopping around for work and immedi- ately booked a film. Now this was more like it. Though she had no lines, she was ecstatic. "I remembered the words of my Carmel High drama teacher, Michael Jacobs, 'There are no small roles, only small actors,'" she says. "I carry that advice with me to this day." Eventually though, she decided to come home to Carmel, to take a job in retail and re-enroll at MPC to fur- ther her general education. Hollywood had other plans. Within three days of her return Sinotte was offered a role in the CBS series "Criminal Minds." This led to her big break: a recurring role on ABCs hit show "Ugly Betty." "I was a regular extra on "Ugly Betty" for two years," she says. "It was a joy, and the best acting class I could have asked for." During her tenure on that show, she worked with and observed Vanessa Williams, Judith Light, America Ferrera and Becki Newton (for whom she performed stand-in work). She left the cast when the pro- duction moved to New York and chose to study classical acting techniques, first at Santa Monica College and then California Institute of Sinotte has been cast in some high-profile productions, including two seasons of the hit ABC television series "Ugly Betty." She has recently gained a strong cult following with her role as The Sorceress on the YouTube series, "Escape the Night." Photo: Britta Francisco 98 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 9

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