Cynthia Enid Olavarría Rivera (born January 28, 1982) is a Puerto Rican actress, television host, fashion model, and former Miss Puerto Rico who competed in the Miss Universe 2005 beauty pageant.
Born in Santurce, a district of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Olavarría was an expressive and eloquent child. Those qualities made her embark in the world of beauty pageants, TV hosting and modeling since she was a teenager. At age 11 she won her first beauty pageant, "Miss Reina Infantil" and became the host of the famous Puerto Rican child game show Contra el Reloj con Pacheco.
Cynthia Olavarria attended La Piedad High School in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico, where she was an honor student and member of many school organizations, including the National Honor Society and the Student Council. After graduating high school, she enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, where she managed to combine her studies with her modeling career. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor's Degree in Mass Communications, with a concentration in Journalism and Public Relations.
At age 16, she started out as a model by competing in Elite Model Look Puerto Rico, where she placed third. This served as springboard to develop a long modeling career where she has enjoyed success, achieving over 20 magazine covers and publications in Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Miami, New York, and Puerto Rico.
Many awards have been given to her for her trajectory, including two awards for “Best Female Model” and a recognition as a Puerto Rican “Top Model”. She also received the “International Model Ambassador Award” at the Chicago Latino Fashion Week in 2007, and another recognition as “Outstanding Model of the Year” in the Latin Pride National Awards.
Olavarria's history with pageants started at age 11 when she won her first beauty pageant, "Miss Reina Infantil". When she became 16, she competed in Elite Model Look Puerto Rico.
After graduating from college, Olavarría was headed towards a master's degree in International Relations as well as a career with Elite Model Management when she decided to temporarily change her path in order to participate in the Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2005 pageant, where she won the crown representing the municipality of Salinas in October 2004.
She represented Puerto Rico in the Miss Universe 2005 pageant held in Bangkok, Thailand in May 2005, and became the first Puerto Rican candidate in Miss Universe history to place first runner-up. The winner was Natalie Glebova of Canada. When Glebova was unable to attend the Miss Indonesia 2007 pageant on behalf of the Miss Universe Organization because of Canada's travel ban on Indonesia, Olavarría officially attended in her place.
During the course of her reign, she made many appearances on such television programs such as Don Francisco Presenta, El Gordo y La Flaca, Despierta America, Cotorreando, Primer Impacto, Objetivo Fama, Premios Juventud, and Premios Lo Nuestro.
Given her success in beauty pageants she has been invited to be a judge in several international beauty pageants, along with hosting some of them.
Her hosting career started at an early age when she became the host of Contra el Reloj con Pacheco. After this, she made multiple appearances as a guest host for various television networks in Puerto Rico and many international events, mainly beauty pageants.
In the United States, she has been a presenter at Premios Juventud, Premios Lo Nuestro, and the Billboard Latin Music Awards. She has also served as guest host in Despierta América, Escandalo TV, and Al Rojo Vivo.
In 2007, Univision recruited her to become the official Runway Coach of the hit reality show Nuestra Belleza Latina which airs on the Univision network. There she held an active role in this position for three years total (2007–2010) while also doing work for other Univision sister networks. In February 2010 she moved on to work for Galavision as a news correspondent and co-host of Acceso Maximo.
Cynthia also worked for Univision's rival network Telemundo as the host of Decisiones Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican adaptation of the Telemundo's series Decisiones. In 2008, she also hosted a Miss Universe special titled “Intimamente con Miss Universo” for Telemundo. The one-hour show follows the steps of Miss Universe 2008, Dayana Mendoza, after winning the title.
Also, in both 2007 and 2008, she joined Mexican singer/actor Fernando Allende to host the Miss World Puerto Rico pageant.
Recently she was also the temporary host of Telemundo's Al Rojo Vivo in November 2010 while she filmed the telenovela Alguien Te Mira (2010).
After finishing her undergraduate studies and returning from Miss Universe, Olavarria began taking acting lessons with actresses Elia Enid Cadilla, Flor Nunez and Sebastian Ligarde in hopes of also becoming an actress. Her television debut was as the protagonist of a mini-series called “Cuando el Universo Conspira” in 2005. Later she made her theater debut by playing a major role as a princess in the child-oriented play “La Princesa de los Ojos Tristes”. In 2006, she appeared in Victor Manuelle and Sin Bandera’s musical video entitled “Maldita Suerte”. In 2007, she landed the protagonist role in the first-ever online telenovela for the Hispanic market, "Mi Adorada Malena", which was produced by Univision and broadcasted on its website. Due to its success, it was later broadcasted nationally on the network. In July 2010 she landed the role of Lucy Saldana in Telemundo's telenovela-thriller Alguien Te Mira (2010). She plays a crazy massage therapist that is obsessed with one of her coworkers and will stop at nothing to destroy his marriage so she can have him. In December 2010 she also played the main role in the music video of Jencarlos Canela's new single, titled "Mi Corazon Insiste".
