Emeraude Toubia (born March 1, 1989) is a Canadian-born American actress and model, who portrayed

Isabelle Lightwood This is a list of the main characters from ''The Mortal Instruments'' series by Cassandra Clare, including the novels '' City of Bones'', ''City of Ashes'', '' City of Glass'', '' City of Fallen Angels'', '' City of Lost Souls'', and ''City of H ...

on the Freeform fantasy series '' Shadowhunters''. Of Mexican and Lebanese descent, she previously appeared on the

Venevisión Venevisión () is a Venezuelan free-to-air television channel and one of Venezuela's largest television networks, owned by the Cisneros Media division of Grupo Cisneros. History The company's roots date back to June 1, 1953, with the establis ...

telenovelas '' Cosita linda'' as Dulce Rincón and '' Voltea pa' que te enamores'' as Stephanie Karam.

Early life

Toubia was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

. She was raised in Brownsville, Texas as an only child. Her mother, Mirta Sonia (née Solis), was born and raised in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, and her father was Lebanese-American. Her paternal grandparents were from the Koura District, Lebanon. As a child, she was professionally trained in

classical ballet Classical ballet is any of the traditional, formal styles of ballet that exclusively employ classical ballet technique. It is known for its aesthetics and rigorous technique (such as pointe work, turnout of the legs, and high extensions), its ...

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura a ...

, belly dance, and lyrical dance. Toubia attended

Homer Hanna High School Hanna High School is a 6A public high school in Brownsville, Texas, United States. It is the successor of Brownsville High School. It is one of six high schools operated by the Brownsville Independent School District Brownsville Independent S ...

in Brownsville for her secondary education. Since the age of fifteen, Toubia had competed in several

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

s; she was crowned Miss South Texas, Miss Rio Grande Valley America, and Miss Teen Brownsville.

Career

In 1999, at the age of ten, Toubia made her first television appearance on Televisa's children's program ''El Mundo de los Niños''. She became widely known in 2008, when she was selected to participate on the second season of the

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and include ...

beauty pageant series ''

Nuestra Belleza Latina ''Nuestra Belleza Latina'' (English: ''Our Latin beauty'') is an American reality television beauty pageant that has been broadcast on Univision from 2007 through 2016, 2018, and 2021. Reunion specials have been conducted in the years 2010, 2016, ...

'', where the participants were trained rigorously in acting, presenting, dancing and other activities; Toubia was voted first runner-up. Since then, she has been featured in advertisements for brands such as Maybelline,

J. C. Penney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Girl ...

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

, Garnier, and

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...

. In 2009, she joined the second season of '' Model Latina'', finishing in fifth place. She was then a semifinalist in Miss Texas USA 2010. From 2011 to 2013, Toubia served as a presenter for several

NBC Universo Universo is an American pay television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises subsidiary of NBCUniversal. The network serves as a companion cable channel to the NBCUniversal's flagship broadcast television network NBC and, to som ...

music and entertainment shows, including ''The Arena'', ''18 & Over'', and ''mun2POP''. She co-hosted the mun2 red carpet special for the 2013 Billboard Latin Music Awards. In 2013, Toubia made her acting debut as Elizabeth on the Nickelodeon Latin America youth telenovela '' 11-11: En mi cuadra nada cuadra'', for which she was coached by

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-nominated actress

Adriana Barraza Adriana Barraza González (born 5 March 1956) is a Mexican actress, acting teacher, and director. In 1999 director Alejandro González Iñárritu cast her as the mother of Gael García Bernal's character in '' Amores perros'', which was nominat ...

. In 2014, she appeared as Dulce Rincón on

's telenovela '' Cosita linda''. The following year, Toubia portrayed Stephanie Karam on the Univision-Venevisión telenovela '' Voltea pa' que te enamores''. In 2016, Toubia began portraying the half-human, half-angel warrior

on Freeform's fantasy series '' Shadowhunters'', based on ''

The Mortal Instruments ''The Mortal Instruments'' is a series of six young adult fantasy novels written by American author Cassandra Clare, the last of which was published on May 27, 2014. ''The Mortal Instruments'' is chronologically the third series of a planned fi ...

'' book series by Cassandra Clare. That same month, she appeared alongside Prince Royce in the music video for his single " Culpa al Corazón".

Personal life

Toubia began dating musician Prince Royce in 2011. They were married in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico on November 30, 2018. The couple own a home in

Studio City, Los Angeles Studio City is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 19 ...

. They announced plans to divorce in March 2022. Toubia supports the Get Schooled non-profit organization; on May 26, 2016, she visited Middle College High School in San Bernardino, California to meet students and act as their "celebrity principal" for the day.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Toubia, Emeraude 1989 births 21st-century American actresses Actresses from Texas Actresses from Montreal American actresses of Mexican descent American beauty pageant winners American people of Lebanese descent American telenovela actresses American television actresses Canadian emigrants to the United States Female models from Texas Hispanic and Latino American actresses Hispanic and Latino American female models Living people Models from Montreal People from Brownsville, Texas