Elise Falanga

Elise Falanga was born in Bayshore, New York and raised in Vernon, New Jersey by her mother Darlene Burke, a licensed psycho-therapist and her step-father Gerald Benowitz, also a licensed psycho-therapist. As early as 6 years old she knew she was meant to be on stage. At age seven, Elise first acted in a stage production of "Annie" at the Playboy Club/Americana and at the infamous water park called Action Park, in Vernon, NJ and at the Sussex County Fair. Her professional career began at age thirteen when she was the second place winner at the "Star Search" competition in Atlantic City (she did a lip-sync line dance of a number from "Dream Girls") and began auditioning. She studied acting in high school and then after she graduated from the University of Rhode Island, she moved to New York City. After 4 years working in the news industry, she decided she didn't want to be a journalist but to be in front of the camera as an actress in Film & Television. She studied acting in New York City with Terry Schreiber, coached with Caryn West and Matthew Corozine to name a few. She has worked as an actress on the stage, in commercial modeling and in Film & Television in New York, Los Angeles and now New Mexico. She is represented by Presley Talent and Bedford Artists Management. She now resides in part in Los Angeles and in Rio Rancho, NM with her husband, Chris Taylor (camera operator) and their two dogs. When Elise was 13 years old, her biological parents were in a custody battle, the court ordered for her to live in Foster care for a month in order to decide with whom she wanted to live with, this moment impacted her life drastically as it was one of the toughest and scariest moments of her childhood. While living in Los Angeles, she volunteered for 4 years with SoCal Hearts, an art summer camp, for inner city foster kids in downtown Los Angeles. She hopes to continue this work with foster kids in both Los Angeles and New Mexico.