Built by Bates
Playing to Win
When Perla Figuereo ’21 visited Bates in high school, she and her family drove through the night from their home in the Bronx, New York, getting to Lewiston around 6 a.m. so Figuereo could take a quick nap outside the Admission office before her visit. Even sleep-deprived, Figuereo fell in love with Bates that day. Her decision to become a Bobcat set her on a trajectory toward pursuing her dreams in the entertainment industry. Last November, the world learned she’d won season 2 of the Netflix game show Squid Game: The Challenge, along with $4.56 million in prize money that would change her family’s life. At Bates, Figuereo had double majored in rhetoric, film, and screen studies and theater, starring in multiple mainstage Bates productions. Theater “really filled my life in the best way,” Figuereo said during a recent phone interview from Los Angeles, where she lives. “I was just so happy to go to rehearsal.” Figuereo was also heavily involved in student government, serving as co-president her senior year, and with affinity organizations like Latinos Unidos and the Black Student Union. After graduation, Figuereo had an internship through Bates’ Center for Purposeful Work at the Cannes Film Festival, then moved to L.A. to work in production and marketing. But after a few years in California, during which she’d quit her full-time job to try modeling, Figuereo was looking for a way to make a name for herself. At a friend’s suggestion, she applied for the reality show Love Island, but the show’s producer asked her to appear on Squid Game instead. Her brother Jeffrey Figuereo applied to join her on the show, and the two of them headed to London for filming.
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Squid Game contestants are eliminated through a series of challenges until only one player is left standing. “You’re constantly on edge,” Figuereo said. Before filming began, Figuereo carefully styled her afro so that her curls could last for weeks, her way of “manifesting through action” a long sojourn on the show. Though her brother was eliminated, Figuereo made it to Squid Game’s final challenge and was thrilled to learn that the last game — the key to winning the entire thing — was “Red Light, Green Light,” which she and her brother had grown up playing in the Dominican Republic.
“The moment I walked out, I was like, ‘I’m winning,’” Figuereo said. “This game is literally just about being still. People think it’s about speed, but it’s stillness.” Figuereo credits the leadership skills she developed in college for her confidence on Squid Game. “Bates gave me the ability to ask for help and also challenge myself,” Figuereo said. And something softer, but no less useful, came straight from her Bates theater experience: a commitment to being emotionally authentic and honest throughout the competition. “Something that I learned in Bates theater is, you’re going to feel how you’re going to feel,” Figuereo said. “In the show, I get critiqued sometimes by some people being like, ‘You were highly emotional.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I was because I was competing for $4 million that I’d never had.’” During Reunion in June, Figuereo will join a panel, “Bates on the National Stage,” to speak about how her Bates experience prepared her for a career in entertainment. For the first time in her life, Figuereo is experiencing real financial stability. But for nearly a year between filming and when the show aired, Figuereo was required to keep her win, including the news that she would be receiving $4.56 million in prize money, a secret. “When it came out, it was just an explosion,” she said. “I had 10 months to process what was going to happen.” Figuereo split her winnings with her brother, and she has plans to buy her mom a house. Her gift to herself is the time to work on her creative passion projects, including writing a memoir. “My story is about the people that came before me and how I’m the freest woman in my lineage,” Figuereo said. “I got to move to this country, try new things, go to college, and not worry about anybody else but me. … The women before me couldn’t do that.” ● — Alexandra DeMarco
P H OTO : CO U RT E S Y O F N E T F L I X
Perla Figuereo ’21 triumphs in Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge