Talia Russo may stand at five-foot two but she’s a fully charged battery when it comes to powering her journey to success.
Having spent her early years in Liverpool, England and Israel before returning to her hometown Toronto, the femme flaneur has parlayed her self-driven passion for the spotlight into a successful acting, modelling and hosting career.
But she admits her self-motivation doesn’t come from the pursuit of fame but more from the realization that life is short.
Russo lost her father to soft-tissue cancer when she was six.
“I think mainly because a lot of people in my life have died, and I have seen how precious life is, and how short it is, I guess it’s just embedded in me, anything, just do it,” she said. “Don’t wait. People don’t have time to sit around and wait.
“I’ve always been a go-getting girl and if I have something that I want I will definitely knock down every door to get it,” she added. “But I’m nice about it.”
Her tenacity has paid off, and it started at the young age of 16 after appearing on MuchMusic’s Electric Circus.
“That was my first television experience and I didn’t know the impact it had until people in the club district would recognize me and shout out, ‘Supergirl’
because I used to wear a shirt that had a sequined S on it.”
She was then able to groove into a modelling career, one that has her in the Toronto Sun record books as the most prolific Sunshine Girl.
“I think all publicity is good publicity. Every little thing helps,” she said. “It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish in your career.
“Just do anything and everything you can to get your name out there, as long as it’s tasteful and classy.”
There are a few promotional strategies she’s not interested in.
“I would never do reality TV,” she said. “I would never do ‘The Bachelor’. Those girls are forgotten as soon as the new one comes up.
“I’ve been told I have good acting ability and hosting ability,” she said. “So, I want people to know me for my talent rather than some crazy reality television show that insults everybody.”
For now she’s hard at work writing and producing season 2 of her TV show ‘Around Town’ airing on CTV 2, and awaiting the release of her new movie Whiskey Business that she shot alongside Pauly Shore.
And she pulls no punches on where her loyalties lie.
“I want to stay in Canada,” she said. “I’m so proud to be Canadian that I don’t think I could be pulled down to the States.”