Betty Suarez
Beatriz U. Suarez is the protagonist of the American comedy-drama series Ugly Betty. She is portrayed by America Ferrera, who won a 2007 Golden Globe Award and 2007 Screen Actors Guild Award for her portrayal of the character, as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the role at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards and was nominated again in the same category at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. AOL named her one of the 100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters.
Fictional biography
Background and early life
Betty Suarez lives in the Jackson Heights neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. In junior high, Betty won the Good Citizens award. Betty gave the award back to the school but later took it back and the principal called her a bad citizen. She attended Queens Borough High School, graduating in 2002, where she was salutatorian and received a Regents diploma. Betty was cast as a rock in a school play. She never went to the Senior prom, staging an anti-prom with her best friend Trina, who later was invited to the event. Betty and Trina did not speak to each other again until 2007. A member of the Music Association; she received an award for playing the cymbals and triangle. Betty also performed as a mascot for the basketball team, for which she was named "Most Inspirational Basketball Mascot"; as she was the yearbook editor, it is possible she gave this title to herself.She attended Queens College, in Flushing, Queens, described as "one of America's best value colleges". She graduated QC in December 2005, with a BFA in Media, Cum Laude. She was treasurer of the Latina Women's League, as well as yearbook editor and a contributor for the school newspaper, the Knight Journal. Her real goal is to become a magazine publisher, which explains her journalistic credentials.
During the summer before attending college and two summers during college, she worked at Corona Cones as a "Soft Serve Specialist/Weekend Night Manager". There she "managed a crew of 2 ", "initiated and maintained soft-serve machine during the double-scoop crossover", and fulfilled "party clown duties as needed".
Suarez then worked at Pro-Buy store #8474 as a part-time human resources coordinator, from summer 2004 to August 2005. She designed the monthly "What's Up, Pro Buy!" employee newsletter.
Suarez then took advantage of two internships. In the summer of 2004, she was at the weekly magazine Politics & More, collaborating on research for the July 2004 cover article on Presidential hopefuls and their wives. Next summer, she interned at Daily Dermatology Magazine; her stay at this Flatbush, Brooklyn publication focused on research for a five-part series on pores for the then upcoming Wide World of Skin convention.
Suarez is fluent in English and also speaks a bit of Spanish, and can speak some Mandarin Chinese. She can also speak some Portuguese, as she called a spa in Brazil during one episode.
She is a "yearly fundraising participant", winner of the 2004 Rotary Club Speech Contest, current coordinator of the Neighborhood Watch program for her area, a math tutor, a county chamber singer, an honorary member of the local Historical Society, and one point worked as a batgirl for the New York Mets.
Employment at ''Mode''
Despite others perceiving Betty Suarez as "geeky, unattractive, and a total goth", she does land a job at the prestigious fashion magazine Mode, where she serves as the personal assistant of Daniel Meade; the magazine's new editor-in-chief, put in place by his father after the previous editor, Fey Sommers, was killed having her brake lines in her car cut. Despite Daniel's less than enthusiastic reaction to working with her, Betty does win him over. Daniel is known to be a womanizer, and Betty prevents temptation from getting in his way in the world of fashion. She keeps her job because of her attitude, skill and stoicism. Despite having a majority of her first check being taken out for taxes, Betty's earnings at Mode are around $37,810 a year.However, Betty is not admired by fellow co-workers, who feel threatened by her presence: Wilhelmina Slater, the magazine's Creative Director, who wanted the job of editor-in-chief, her cohort Marc St. James, and magazine receptionist Amanda Tanen, are determined to sabotage Betty and Daniel at any cost, but for different reasons. Betty finds an unlikely friend, Christina McKinney, a seamstress whose knowledge about what goes on at Mode will play a vital part in their relationship. Betty's fashion sense, glasses, hair, her short stature, and working-class roots in Queens are often mocked by her colleagues, however Suarez manages to work towards overcoming this. Betty is also slightly clumsy, often knocking into things, most notably plexiglass windows. Betty remains centered and focused amongst the clashing of egos and eccentric behavior of her colleagues.
Betty has also found herself embroiled with the Meade family in more ways than one. Bradford trusts her because she can keep Daniel's financial responsibilities intact while Daniel trusts her because she can deliver and take charge. She is also aware of Claire Meade's problems with alcoholism, but learned later Claire was the person who killed Fey; when Claire told Betty she wanted to leave the country rather than face murder charges, Betty talked her out of it and convinced Claire to turn herself in. Betty was also impressed by Alexis Meade's recent sex-change to the point of where she asked Alexis about where she can buy a hormone patch so she wouldn't use bleach to get rid of her mustache. When Daniel and Alexis began feuding over the ownership of Meade Publications, Betty stepped in and played mediator and forced them to talk it out in front of their mother while in bumper cars at Coney Island. Thanks to Betty, both Daniel and Alexis agreed to a truce until the matter over the company was settled.
Since she started working alongside Daniel, she has helped him with his sexual and drug addictions, repair his trust with family and improve his abilities as an Editor-In-Chief, along with getting him out of trouble, like exposing a Mother/daughter team trying to blackmail him. Daniel in turn has also help Betty with her own faults, mostly in the romance department and trying to open up her talents as a writer. However, there were a couple of incidents that almost ended that: When Betty tried to protect Daniel from a tell-all writer, Daniel lashed out at her, resulting in Betty giving Daniel the cold shoulder. The second time came when she witnessed Wilhelmina sleeping with her bodyguard while trying to get the mock-up from Wilhelmina's apartment. When Wilhelmina bribed Betty into not telling Daniel about her romp, Betty agreed and betrayed Daniel, but is fired at Wilhelmina and Bradford's wedding after she came clean. He would later regret that after Ignacio went straight to the hospital and told Daniel the reason. As Betty told Daniel she wasn't the same person that walked into MODE and she wanted to give up her job, it would be Bradford telling her not to, first at the hospital prior to his passing and later as her subconscious.
Betty would be the one to help Claire and her murder conviction, first by making sure Alexis and Daniel would continue as owners of Meade Publications and reconcile with Bradford before his death. In the episode Odor in the Court, as Claire goes to trial for murdering Fey, some new evidence surfaces in the Love Dungeon, along with a bottle of perfume Claire gives to Betty for safekeeping during the trial. Fey's diary reveals in an attempt to kill Claire, Fey had sent a bottle of poisoned perfume to Bradford to give to Claire as a 'souvenir' driving her to madness and kill her. By a stroke of fate, Claire's insanity resulted in Fey's own death instead. After Betty nearly kills herself with the perfume, and after Amanda is convinced to hand over the evidence to Betty, Claire is found not guilty and freed. Therefore, Mode is now back in Claire's control.
As of the second-season finale, Wilhelmina Slater became the editor-in-chief at Mode.
In the 3rd season, Wilhelmina tried to once again manipulate Betty by luring her back to working with her, and succeeded. This sudden turn of events, along with an attempt to mold her into the next "Wilhelmina" didn't set well with Marc, so he gave Betty a bag of letters sent to Daniel setting the stage for Betty's decision to resign as Wilhelmina's assistant, Daniel returning to his EIC job at Mode and his rehiring of Betty, and Wilhelmina's demotion back to Creative Director.
Soon, Christina is pushed down a flight of stairs by an unknown person which results in Betty finding through Mode's staff to find the culprit, finally learning that Alexis was the one. Alexis goes to jail but thanks to Claire, she is reduced to just doing community service. After Alexis leaves for Paris, Betty has to deal with Gio returning from Italy. Gio who is angry towards Betty acts cold and bans her from his deli and life but Betty perseveres to win his heart back by tricking him into helping her get DJ away from his grandparents. After the issue, the two reconcile but Gio wants to try something different for love and leaves Betty.
She also begins to study at the YETI program for young editors with Marc. In the third-season finale Betty and Marc compete for an editor's job at Mode. Daniel and Wilhelmina can't decide which one to hire, and finally make the decision by flipping a coin, and Betty gets the promotion.
In the series finale Betty leaves Mode for a job in London. Daniel realizes that he has feelings for Betty and wants to be more than friends. He asks her out to dinner, a date and she says "I'd love to". Later, Betty asks Daniel if he wants a new job, joking that she is searching for an assistant.