''Yo soy Bea'' is a Spanish

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

series which aired on

Telecinco Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially launc ...

from 10 July 2006 to 16 August 2009. The series is an adaptation of the popular

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...

Yo soy Betty, la fea ''Yo soy Betty, la fea'' (English: I am Betty, the Ugly one), often referred to simply as ''Betty, la fea'', is a Colombian telenovela written by Fernando Gaitán which was broadcast from 25 October 1999 to 8 May 2001 by RCN. More than a dozen ...

'' (''"I am Betty, the ugly"''). It stars Ruth Núñez in the title role of Beatriz "Bea" Pérez Pinzón and Alejandro Tous as Álvaro Aguilar, Bea's love interest. ''Yo soy Bea'' translates to "I am Bea"; it is a pun, with "Bea" sounding like bella, meaning pretty, and like fea, meaning ugly. The Spanish adaptation screened weekdays during the daytime and pulled in, on average, over four million viewers (over +35% share of the audience). The series' record is a 42.1% share. It was Spain's top rated daytime program.

Plot

Set in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, the series tells the story of Beatriz "Bea" Pérez Pinzón ( Ruth Núñez). She is a highly intelligent and well-educated young woman, but has trouble finding a job because of her unattractive appearance, which consists of oversized glasses, braces, big eyebrows, and a lack of fashion sense. She manages to get a job as a secretary at the coveted fashion

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

, ''Bulevar 21''. She falls madly in love with her boss, Álvaro Aguilar ( Alejandro Tous), the young, handsome newly appointed director of the magazine. Despite her mousy looks and social awkwardness, Bea earns the respect and friendship of many of her co-workers, including Álvaro, because of her hard work, dedication, and kindness. However, she still has to endure insulting comments from "the posh trio," made up of Cayetana de la Vega (

Mónica Estarreado Mónica Estarreado (born 29 June 1975, in Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish people, Spanish actress. She is best known for her role as Cayetana de la Vega on the popular Spanish comedy-drama ''Yo soy Bea'' and for her current role as Dr. Valeria Peralta ...

), Álvaro's longtime girlfriend, Richard de Castro (David Arnaiz), a photographer, and Barbara Ortiz (Norma Ruiz), Álvaro's other secretary. Bea documents her journey through love and work in an online

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

entitled "Blog de una fea" ("Blog of an ugly girl"). Besides Bea's love for Álvaro, the main plot of the series is the power struggle between Álvaro and Diego de la Vega (Miguel Hermoso Arnao), Cayetana's evil brother. In order to keep Diego from taking the magazine's capital, Álvaro and his best friend and colleague, Gonzalo de Soto (José Manuel Seda), decide to set up a fake firm and move all of the capital into it. Álvaro convinces a reluctant Bea to head the firm by making her believe he is romantically interested in her. Bea believes she finally has the man of her dreams. During the course of their "relationship," Álvaro constantly mistreats Bea, cheats on her with Cayetana, and makes fun of her with Gonzalo. Eventually, Álvaro, to his own amazement, genuinely falls in love with Bea. However, Bea overhears a conversation between Álvaro and Gonzalo discussing the set-up and breaks up with Álvaro. Álvaro tries repeatedly to get Bea to believe that he truly loves her, but to no avail. Through the rest of the series, Álvaro and Bea endure many obstacles on their way back to each other: the firm being discovered and both Álvaro and Bea being arrested for

embezzlement Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...

, Álvaro going to prison for a short time, various schemes and manipulations by Diego, other love interests, the death of Álvaro's father, and the revelation that Diego and Álvaro are half-brothers (Álvaro's father had an affair with Diego's mother). In the end, Bea becomes beautiful, Álvaro gets the magazine out of Diego's control, and Bea and Álvaro finally reunite and marry. Immediately after the ceremony, the two leave for

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. To replace Bea, a new protagonist, Beatriz "Be" Berlanga Echegaray (Patricia Montenero), is introduced. She wants to become a journalist and starts working at ''Bulevar 21''. The other new protagonist is Roberto Vazquez (Àlex Adrover), the editor, who is later replaced by Cesar Villa (Miguel de Miguel), an investigative journalist.

Background

This is an adaptation of the original Colombian Fernando Gaitan, whose writing involved, among other authors, Covadonga Thick, Ariana Martin, Marta Azcona, Mercedes Rodrigo, Ignasi Garcia, Roberto Goñi, Juanma Ruiz Cordova, Beatriz G. Cruz, Veronica Viñé, Santi Diaz, Jordi Arencón, Daniel del Casar, Jessica Pires, Estefania Salyers, Deysi Porras, Benjamin Zafra, Sara Alquézar, Daniel Corpas, Beatriz Duque, Daniel Castro and Remedios Crespo.

Awards and nominations

Won

TP de Oro The TP de Oro were a series of Spanish annual television awards awarded between 1972 and 2011 by ''Teleprograma'' magazine. In 2012 they were absorbed by Fotogramas de Plata awards. References External links Web oficial de TPIMDb Page Spani ...

*2006 - ''Best telenovela'' *2007 - ''Best telenovela'' Nominations

*2006 - ''Best actress'' *2008 - ''Best telenovela''

External links

{{Ugly Betty series 2006 Spanish television series debuts 2009 Spanish television series endings Yo soy Betty, la fea Telecinco network series Telecinco telenovelas 2000s Spanish comedy television series 2000s Spanish drama television series 2000s comedy-drama television series Spanish comedy-drama television series Spanish television series based on Colombian television series