The Watchful Eye is Freeform’s most recent drama series which follows Elena Santos (Mariel Molino), a live-in nanny for an affluent family in Manhattan who has ulterior motives. However, she soon learns that everyone in the Manhattan apartment she lives in, Graybourne, has secrets of their own. Keep reading for everything we know about Mariel, including age, roles and her dating life.
Who Is Mariel Molino?
Mariel, 30, is a Mexican-American actress who has starred in shows such as ABC’s Promised Land, Narcos: Mexico and a handful of telenovelas. The Watchful Eye is Mariel’s second time working on American television.
“I grew up in San Diego and my family wasn’t at all familiar with the industry, so we got scammed a couple of times,” she told the Hollywood Reporter. “We paid for agents while we were trying to figure out how it all worked.”
It wasn’t until she started auditioning in Mexico City when her career really started to begin. “I had such a judgment toward it, but the first time I actually worked on one I realized it was the best technical acting school I could get,” she said of the traditional soap operas.
As for her love life, it looks like Mariel is currently single, looking at her Instagram page.
Who Does Mariel Molino Play In ‘The Watchful Eye’?
Mariel plays Elena, and was excited to take on such a “complicated” character.
“I find that roles written specifically for someone with a diverse background can overemphasize the character’s race or ethnicity,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “But after reading the pilot, I saw that Elena was actually a complex character — she’s white-passing and can speak eloquently with these rich characters but has a bit of a duplicity behind closed doors. That was interesting to me.”
She told Collider that in the past she’s used to playing “the girlfriend of, the sister of, the daughter of” other characters — so she was excited to dive into Elena’s world.
“I loved that Elena really is complicated, deceitful, passionate, and tragic, and all of that is coupled with it being a thriller,” she explained. “I love thrillers, and I had never done one, so that was really exciting. I’m like you, I wanna know everything. I think I know everything. I have all of these theories. I’m the type of person that, when I watch a show, I listen to an accompanying podcast, I listen to other theories, and I go on Reddit. I loved that aspect of it.”
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