The comeback kid

“It was the year that Erich [Gonzales] and Arron [Villaflor] were there,” she recalls. “I made it to the top 25 before I was eliminated following a series of acting exercises. I was crushed.”

“I thought things were over for me,” she adds.

As it turned out, she couldn’t have been more wrong. She came back in a big way—one that brings to mind the term “Cinderella story”—and is now one of ABS-CBN’s most in-demand talents, what with three regular shows and guest appearances on others under her belt.

Star Magic (ABS-CBN’s talent development and management arm) must have seen something in her, because they kept in touch with her even after her elimination. One day, they called and told her about the auditions for a youth-oriented show on ABS-CBN titled Let’s Go.

She sailed through the auditions and soon after, won over a lot of people with her portrayal of the kooky yet loveable Junniper. So impressed were these people that they went on the Internet and wrote nice things about her on various message boards. Some of them even put up websites in her honor and wrote songs about her.

“One day, a band e-mailed me and told me they wrote a song about their dream girl Eda—in other words, me,” she shares. “I listened to it and I was really flattered.” The song was titled (what else?) Eda.

Eda says she is very grateful for her current success. As well she should, because aside from Let’s Go, she is also part of the Claudine Barretto-Piolo Pascual teleserye Walang Kapalit and Komiks Presents: Pedro Penduko At Ang Mga Engkantao.

Not bad for someone who thought she would never make it in the industry, right?