RHIAN RAMOS: RESILIENT BI-RACIAL

RHIAN RAMOS: RESILIENT BI-RACIAL BY DANNY VIBAS G OING by her screen name of Rhian Ramos, you wouldn’t think she is bi-racial. But her real name is Rhian Denise Ramos Howell. Her mother is Clara Ramos from Makati and her father, Garreth Howell, is British. The couple separated when Rhian was still in gradeschool in Makati. Though she and her only sibling (an older sister) stayed with their mom, both sisters have always been in touch with their dad. Rhian, in fact, has been taking periodic vacations with her dad wherever he happened to be assigned as a sales executive of upscale construction materials. The dad even attended Rhian’s debut bash which occurred when she has been two years in showbiz.

Rhian was only 16 in 2006, still in high school at De La Salle Zobel, when GMA 7 asked her to audition to be the leading lady of Richard Gutierrez for the TV series Captain Barbell after some network executives saw her on a McDonald‘s commercial. At that time, the network honchos didn’t know yet that Rhian was a niece of Ida Ramos who happened to head the network’s artist center. They learned about it only when they asked Ida to look for that pretty girl in that commercial. It was also only then that they learned that the girl was bi-racial.

After teaming up with hottie Richard right on her maiden showbiz assignment, Rhian went on to be teamed up with other Kapuso male lead stars in many other network attractions, including films. Her being bi-racial became an issue only when the public and the press noted that she wasn’t in the habit of using “po” and “opo” when talking with people older than she is. Practically every Metro Manila-born Pinoy youth pepper their conversations with adults with “po” and “opo.” Rhian survived the hecklings cast against the tisoys and the tisays of the country. By 2011, she was a well-established Pinoy showbiz idol, though around October of that year, her charmed life was rocked by the motormouth of a celebrity boyfriend she has broken up with. She had to go to court to stop the guy from bashing her in his radio program and on social media, and to prevent him from being around within a certain perimeter. She decided to slow down in 2012 by just hosting weekly TV shows and avoided meeting press people.

By 2013, though, she began to demonstrate the resiliency of the biracial by starring in teleseryes of GMA and films of a handful of companies. She even learned how to reply sportingly to questions about her soured affair with the motormouth media dude. She once cheerily blurted out to a press guy about that love affair: “That’s all in the past. What I learned from it is I was stupid. Yes, I was, but not anymore.” Nagkaroon na rin naman siya ng dalawang relasyon mula noon: sa mga kapwa bi-racials n’yang si KC Montero at Filipino-Chinese businessman na si Jason Choachuy. Halos isang taon lang ang relasyon n’ya kay KC pero tatlong taon ang kay Jason.

Winakasan n’ya ang mga relasyong yon nang di mapakla, kaya’t kaibigan pa rin daw n’ya sila.

In 2018, she decided to co-produce an indie film with TBA and actor JM Guzman: “Kung Paano Siya Nawala,” directed by Joel Ruiz. Bago natapos ang taon, nagdesisyon siyang tuparin ang isang childhood dream n’ya: mag-aral sa abroad. Nung Disyembre 2018, lumipad siya pa-New York para kumuha ng short courses du’n sa acting and performing. She stayed there all by herself in an apartment until May 2019 during which she also decided to resume her recording career which she began about a decade ago with a single.

By June of this year, she has recorded two songs both of which are her compositions: “Body Crashes” and “Napagod.” Nagawaan na n’ya ng music video ang Body Crashes. Hanggang nitong Agosto ay ang pagpu-promote ng mga kanta n’ya ang kanyang pinagkakaabalahan n’ya. Pero malamang na sa Setyembre ay may mas malalaking project pang ipanggugulat sa fans n’ya at sa publiko si Rhian Ramos, ang resilient bi-racial.  BG BG SHOWBIZ PLUS ‹ 11