The best of Rhian

Rhian Ramos recalls early days in showbiz as she signs a new contract with her mother network

It’s hard to believe it’s been two decades since a 15-year-old Rhian Ramos walked into GMA Network for the very first time.

She still remembers it clearly—the seventh-floor waiting room, the day she met Camille Prats, and the nerve-racking audition for Mars Ravelo’s Captain Barbell (2006).

“I was trying so hard to remember my lines, but they were in Tagalog,” Rhian tells me with a laugh. “I understood the context, but when it came to the audition, I was answering in English. Somehow, I still got the part.”

That was in 2006, and her life was about to change forever.

Yesterday, Aug. 12, Rhian marked her renewal of contract with the Kapuso network at Studio 6. And it was no small affair. Present at the signing were GMA Network top guns Gilberto R. Duavit, Jr., Felipe S. Yalong, Attorney Annette Gozon-Valdes, Cheryl Ching-Sy, and Rhian’s manager Michael Uycoco.

Also there to show their love were Rhian’s boyfriend, entrepreneur Sam Verzosa, her mother Clara, and sister Nadine—all beaming with pride.

“But I’m grateful,” she says. “They adjusted the role for me…they made her someone who had just come back from the States. And yeah, that’s the iconic GMA show that changed my life forever. People started coming up to me and calling me Leah,” she adds, referring to her character in the 2006 TV series.

That was her first taste of showbiz. “A lot of people were approaching me as if I were the real-life character.”

She was 15 then, and it was Attorney Annette Gozon who spotted her in a fast-food commercial. 

“It was my first and last commercial as a commercial model. Tinapos niya agad ang career ko as a commercial model and made me an artista.”

Rhian admits she never thought she’d last this long. “I tell them before that you don’t have control over how long people will like you as an actress. In my 20s, I felt that it was a job, not a career. But now, it’s become a career for me, and I fell in love with my work,” she says, adding, “Now, I can’t imagine myself not acting.”

When it comes to her dream projects, she names two actors she’d like to work with again—Richard Gutierrez, her first-ever co-star, and Jason Abalos from The One That Got Away. 

“Richard would be a major throwback, but I’d also like to work with Jason because of our unexpectedly very natural rapport. I wanted to have another project with him playing a different character, just to play with that rapport we had. It was so natural.”

When asked what makes her loyal to GMA, she turns emotional. “I was given this opportunity at such a young age. I was a kid who didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know that this was work. I didn’t know what acting was, and I couldn’t even speak the language, but they gave me the opportunity and changed my life.”

She takes a breath before continuing. “I made so many mistakes. Bata pa lang ako, Kapuso na ako. It’s not so much that I’m loyal to the station, I feel like they’ve been loyal to me.”

And it’s not just lip service. “They didn’t treat me like a business, like, ‘Oh, she’s not doing well right now, let’s kill it.’ It’s not like that. They always treated me as a person and continued to give me opportunity after opportunity. Since they stuck with me when I gave them the worst of me, that’s why I stick with them while I give the best of me.”