From the lush landscapes of the North to the front page of Forbes magazine, Sheetal Deo’s rise to stardom is the classic rags-to-riches tale that encapsulates the rewards of hard work and sacrifice.
The Labasa-born lass graced the cover of the magazine’s Los Angeles edition, which has featured big names such as Kendall Jenner, Jessica Alba and Megan Trainor.
In an interview with this newspaper, Ms Deo said Forbes wanted to write an article on her.
“I didn’t believe I had enough (experience), but with my recent projects in the pipeline, I thought this is the perfect time to publish and let people know,” she said.
The former Hibiscus contestant moved to the US in 2010.
“I was born in Labasa, but when I was two-weeks-old, my parents moved to Suva,” she said.
“I grew up in Suva, but moved to the land of opportunity 13 years ago.”
Ms Deo’s father was a police officer while her mother was a homemaker. Her passion for modelling and acting started easy, but her journey was not a bed of roses. Her father dismissed acting as a viable career, and Fiji’s lack of a local acting industry exacerbated these hurdles.
“I was interested since I was a child. I used to take part in contests, and I was very stylish I would say since I was a child,” she said.
A multilinguist, she is currently signed with Stefanie Talent, a full-service SAG-AFTRA agency.
