Isabel Arraiza – Revealing Facts About The Little Things Star

Isabel Arraiza is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Yoni Castillo in the American drama series, Pearson (2019). The actress cum model has had a major come up in the past four years and has been a cast member of some of Hollywood’s biggest television gems, including the 2021 blockbuster horror movie, The Little Things, the American drama The Oath (2018), and the 2018 action movie Driven.

The prolific actress has appeared alongside industry greats like Denzel Washington and Jared Leto. Her last featured movie premiered last January 2021, on the 29th. Arraiza has also made a career out of modeling and has been known to grace the covers of some top magazines like Maxim and GQ.

Latina actress Isabel Arraiza was born into a large family in Puerto Rico

Isabel Arraiza was born on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico on August 2, 1990, she is now 34 years old. She was born into a large Spanish family and was raised alongside her older brother on the island. Although reasonably famous, the ‘Pearson’ actress has refused to reveal details about her birth family, and thus, there is no clue who her parents are or what they do. All we know is that she is of Spanish descent, as evidenced by her unique features like dark hair, eyes, and brows.

Growing up, young Arraiza had big hopes of becoming a movie star. She loved watching television, and would often imitate the characters she saw on screen, imagining herself to be one of them. Still, the actress didn’t know how to go about her dream, as the lack of Latina representation in Hollywood movies wasn’t exactly encouraging. Things changed a little for the aspiring actress after she saw Jennifer Lopez (who is also Latina) play the lead role in Selena in 1995.

With this new seed of hope, Isabel left Puerto Rico and came down to New York, where she was able to study at the prestigious Juilliard Performing Arts Conservatory.

Isabel Arraiza only started acting 6 years ago in 2018

After making the decision to leave her beloved hometown to attend drama school in New York, Arraiza realized she would have to overcome some really big obstacles in order to break the negative stereotypes about her people. Shortly after graduating from Juilliard, she landed her debut role in the 2018 movie titled, Elementary School where she played the role of Lily Zavala. This movie didn’t rake in millions, nor did it put Isabel on the world map, but it was a step in the right direction for the Caribbean girl with huge dreams.

Here are some of Isabel Arraiza’s most notable movie roles

Isabel has caused quite a stir for someone who only began acting four years ago. Let’s take a look at some of her most notable movie roles. Currently, Arraiza has only been featured on 6 projects, with three of those happening in less than two years. After her initial debut, she didn’t appear on screen until 2018 when she played Marina in the movie, American Dreamer.

Since then, she has been featured in three other projects: Driven, Campfire Alpha, The Prodigal, and the television series, Oath.

Her characters in these projects have been very diverse, showing off her very wide acting range. In ‘Driven’, she played a supermodel and trophy gangster wife, while in ‘American Dreamer’, she played the broken character of a drug addict. Speaking about how the latter movie happened, she said,  “It’s a character with no redemption whatsoever… that’s super challenging.” 

Her most recognizable role to date is probably Yoni Castillo in the ‘Pearson’ series [which is a spin-off of Suits]. On the show, Arraiza portrays the main character’s (Jessica Pearson) personal assistant who happens to have a smart mouth and an upbeat personality. A dark cry from the character she played in ‘American Dream’. The show made history as the first ever to feature an Afro-Latina woman (Gina Torres) in a lead role.

Most recently, Isabel played Anna Baxter in the first season of the horror series, The Little Things which was released in January 2021.

She is a fan of some of the biggest names in the film industry

Arraiza knew she was going to be a star since she began to imitate Hollywood screen goddess, Meryl Streep. Streep is arguably one of the best Hollywood actors of all time and idolizing her is creating huge shoes for one to fill. This is exactly what Arraiza did, and we daresay she has been pretty successful at following the footsteps of her role model.

Isabel has also admitted that she had a huge crush on John Stamos back in the nineties. John famously played the character of Jesse Katsopolis on the ABC comedy sitcom Full House.

Arts runs in her family

It isn’t surprising to learn that Isabel is not the only artist in her family because creativity often runs in the blood. A close cousin of hers is quite well known in the Latina fine arts sphere just as she is known in the performing arts. His name is Cesar Reyes and he is a Puerto Rican art patron and psychiatrist.

Reyes’ influence is so wide that he was specially honored at the 25th Gala of El Museo del Barrio, for his contributions to Latin American and  Puerto Rican art.

Isabel Arraiza is extremely proud of her Puerto Rican heritage

The actress has not at all conformed to the industry’s pressure to disguise her ethnicity in any way. She keeps her appearance classy, casual, natural, and unambiguously Latin American. Her natural dark brown tresses have not been touched, neither has she changed her facial bone structure which is a dead giveaway of her origins.

In fact, if nothing else, Isabel Arraiza flaunts her heritage and is never ashamed to represent her people everywhere she goes. The Latina actress has severally admitted how attached she was to her hometown, saying,  “I go back every year. I’m extremely proud of being puertorriqueña and representing our people by doing good work.” 

Isabel Arraiza is bilingual

The actress speaks both English and Spanish with native ease. This is no surprise, given that she grew up on an island where Spanish was the predominantly spoken language. She has however revealed that she was initially full of trepidation at the thought of auditioning for movie roles in English.

The actress shared a heartwarming story of how she met an Afro-Latina on a casting set, who spoke her language to her, erasing her fear of sticking out like a sore thumb on set. Now she flows effortlessly from one language to the other, as she is more aware of and comfortable with the effect her background has on her career.

‘The Little Things’ star is noticeably single

Although Arraiza has made it clear that she likes to keep her personal life away from public eyes, it has not reduced our interest in her romantic affairs. Since her huge breakout moment in 2018, there hasn’t been any sign of a lover in Isabel’s life.

Speculations have been made, saying that the actress has been in a very low-key relationship, but there has been no evidence to support that theory and so the reigning verdict is that the gorgeous Isabel Arraiza is single. What no one knows, however, is how ready she is to mingle, as she currently shows no outward signs of wanting a romantic relationship.