People & Pictures : Famous American actress and model falls in love with the Kingdom

Jun 18, 20242 min read

Emeraude Toubia, star of Shadowhunters and With Love, recently visited Cambodia's iconic Angkor Wat and described the country as an authentic “Kingdom of Wonder”.

Emeraude Toubia, 35, is a well-known American actress and model. From 2016 to 2019, she portrayed Isabelle Lightwood in the Freeform fantasy series Shadowhunters. Toubia has also starred as Lily Diaz in the Amazon Prime Video romantic comedy series With Love since 2021.

Toubia was born in Montreal, Quebec. She grew up in Brownsville, Texas as an only child. Toubia's mother, Mirta Sonia, was born and raised in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, and her father is Gaby Toubia. As a child, she was professionally trained in classical ballet, flamenco, belly dance and lyrical dance. Toubia attended Homer Hanna High School in Brownsville for her secondary education. Since the age of fifteen, Toubia has participated in several beauty pageants and has been crowned Miss South Texas, Miss Rio Grande Valley America and Miss Teen Brownsville.

In 1999, at the age of ten, Toubia made her first television appearance on Televisa's children's programme El Mundo de los Niños. She became widely known in 2008 when she was selected to participate in the second season of Univision's beauty pageant series Nuestra Belleza Latina, where the contestants were rigorously trained in acting, presentation, dancing and other activities; Toubia was voted first runner-up. Since then, she has appeared in commercials for brands such as Maybelline, J.C. Penney, Sony, Garnier and AT&T.

In 2009, she participated in the second season of Model Latina, finishing in fifth place. She was then a semi-finalist in Miss Texas USA 2010. From 2011 to 2013, Toubia hosted several music and entertainment shows on NBC Universo, 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 in the Nickelodeon Latin America youth telenovela 11-11: En mi cuadra nada cuadra, for which she was coached by Academy Award-nominated actress Adriana Barraza.

In 2014, she appeared as Dulce Rincón in the Venevisión telenovela Cosita linda. The following year, Toubia portrayed Stephanie Karam in the Univision-Venevisión telenovela Voltea pa' que te enamores. In 2016, Toubia began portraying half-human, half-angel warrior Isabelle Lightwood on Freeform's fantasy series Shadowhunters, based on Cassandra Clare's book series The Mortal Instruments. That same month, she appeared alongside Prince Royce in the music video for his single "Culpa al Corazón".

Since 2021, Toubia has starred as Lily Diaz in the Amazon Prime Video romantic comedy series With Love,[19] and is set to appear in the upcoming romantic comedy film The Redo.