Andre Rivera*

[Fiori]

Name: Andre Rivera
Gender: Male
Age: 17
School: Davison Secondary School
Hobbies and Interests: Theatre, experimental cinema, film studies, piano, painting.

Appearance: Andre stands at around 5'9, and weighs roughly 155 pounds. His body is lean and slender, thanks to his regular exercise routine to keep himself in good shape, and his olive skin is mostly devoid of blemishes thanks to the lengths he goes to make sure he always looks his very best.

He is considered by the majority of his classmates to be very attractive with his toned body, dark brown eyes, striking eyebrows, dimpled chin, reasonably full lips and sculptured nose. His neck-length hair is a deep, dark brown and is consistently combed and cleaned with the best products his family could afford.

His dress sense is usually what some would describe as smart casual, although others may describe it as somewhat preppy. On Casting Day, he was wearing a pair of black slacks, black shoes and a dark grey blazer over a purple short-sleeved shirt with the top button undone.

Biography: For the most part, Andre has lived a fairly comfortable life in one of the wealthier districts in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is an only child, born to a successful Mexican-American real estate agent named Javier and a Canadian Music teacher named Michelle. He generally gets on well with both of his parents, although he has made little secret of the fact that he finds his father's occupation to be incredibly dull, and despite his mother's best efforts the only musical instrument that Andre was ever truly interested in was the piano. That said, once his mother realised this she went to great lengths to teach him how to play, and as a result he has grown to become a reasonably skilled piano player.

When he was much younger, Andre tended to be something of an introvert. Rather than play sports or run around outside, Andre tended to love nothing more than to sit inside and sketch drawings. After noticing his affinity for art, his parents decided to buy him an easel and painting kit for his sixth birthday. This in turn eventually led to his love for painting, as well as his desire to be praised for his work after his classmates complimented him on his pictures. After realising how good it felt to receive positive feedback, Andre went out of his way to show people his pictures and make new friends, gradually growing more socially confident with each passing week.

Nowadays, he is a very different person to who he was as a child. Whilst he has his moments of preferring to be left alone in order to think freely, he enjoys his semi-popular status at Davison Secondary School, partly thanks to the fact that he has grown up to become a very attractive young man. This was mainly due to the amount of effort he puts into making sure he always looks his very best, such as his healthy diet and regular exercise regime. As a result, he has his fair share of fangirls at school, particularly amongst the lower years. However, a fair amount of classmates are put off by his vanity, seeing as he has also grown to have something of an ego thanks to the amount of praise he has received over the years for his work.

Nevertheless, whilst he may come across as haughty and aloof to some, he is not without his friends. After discovering his love for painting, he eventually discovered a love for theatre as well. As a result, most of his closest friends have been fellow theatre enthusiasts, although there are those who consider him to be somewhat difficult to work with. He is notorious for being somewhat domineering on set, regardless of whether he is the director or a simple actor. He has also been known for being something of a prima-donna at times, often refusing to accept any part except the lead role in any production he is in. That said, most would agree that he is a terrific actor, and his assertive and perfectionist nature has led him to direct good shows whenever he is given 100% freedom to do whatever he wants.

Whilst his parents have never had as big an impact on his interests as they would have hoped, perhaps the most influential figure in Andre's life would be his uncle Miguel, a prolific movie director who is a member of an underground film movement known as the Neo-Originals. The Neo-Originals sprung up as a reaction to the stagnancy of the entertainment industry, their aim being to revitalise the film industry through the use of "truly original" cinema. Whilst most mainstream audiences find their work to be too experimental or avante-garde to be remotely watchable, people like Andre who long for something new find them enticing.

Because of his uncle's work, in recent years Andre found what he believed to be his true calling in life: Film. Specifically the kind of art films that his uncle makes, films that aim to break conventions in order to create something truly new and exciting. As a result, he has consistently scored extremely good marks when it comes to creative subjects such as art and film studies, albeit at the cost of more academic subjects such as mathematics where his results are satisfactory at best. Nevertheless, he has high hopes for the future, and intends to study at one of the best film schools in the country after graduating from Davison Secondary.

Ironically given the school he attends, unlike many of his classmates Andre openly detests SOTF-TV and does not shy away from making his opinions public, although his reasons are somewhat different from most. He believes that SOTF-TV represents everything wrong with the entertainment industry, deriding it as a shallow appeal to lowest common denominator that relies more on gratuitous violence and nudity than actual content. The fact that he is genuinely unnerved by the show's bloodthirsty content is also a strong reason for his hatred of the show, seeing as he is particularly squeamish when it comes to violence. In fact, the only thing that horrifies him more than pointless violence would be his fear of heights, seeing as he has been acrophobic for as long as he could remember.

Because of his hatred of SOTF-TV, whenever there have been protests against the show he always makes an effort voice his support, as well as his support for other causes that appeal to him. This has occasionally caused him to receive flak from some of his classmates, to which he usually responds with biting remarks about their taste in entertainment. One of the most common things he gets asked about is why he attends a school funded by SOTF when he is so dismissive of the show, his main reasoning being that his parents chose the school for him because of it's high reputation, as well as the fact that it also happens to be the very school that his mother works at.

Despite his haughty nature when it comes to people's taste in entertainment, he generally tries to avoid judging people by their race, gender, sexuality or religion, viewing discrimination of any kind to be utterly deplorable. This in part was due to his Mexican heritage, although later in life he found another reason to despise discrimination when he reached puberty.

Whilst he has never had any genuine interest in the opposite gender, it wasn't until he was thirteen that he realised that he was attracted to a number of his male classmates. After eventually coming to the conclusion that he was homosexual, it took him another three years to muster up the courage to come out and make it public, much to the disappointment of many of his fangirls (Although there are some who felt differently about this revelation). Much to his surprise though, many people admitted that they had already suspected this to be the case for quite some time, including his own parents who since then have grown to accept him for who he is.

Since coming out, he has been more open about supporting pro-LGBT organisations, such as becoming a member of the GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance). He has also began to enter the dating scene, often going out with other students his age from Davison Secondary and other schools around Albuquerque, although he has yet to form any long-lasting romantic relationships.

Advantages: Andre's assertive nature and confidence in his abilities makes him a natural leader, and he has been known to achieve great things whenever he is put in charge of a group. His exceptional acting ability and good looks may also serve him well, especially seeing as there are already a number of classmates who are already infatuated with him.
Disadvantages: He is extremely squeamish when it comes to physical violence, not to mention somewhat acrophobic. There are also a number of classmates who are not fond of him, mostly due of his aloof personality but he is also far from popular amongst homophobes and rabid fans of SOTF-TV.