Modeling and acting
Gina Marie Allemand was born in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens, New York City, and grew up in the borough of Staten Island and nearby in suburban Long Island.[4] She began modeling at a very young age, and as a baby, appeared in Johnson & Johnson ads and as a Gerber Baby.[2] As a teenager, Allemand initially never thought about a career in modeling.[5] However, at age 19 she began modeling after she was asked to enter a swimsuit competition that she ended up winning.[5] Allemand finished second in the Miss Hawaiian Tropic competition and the Miss Red Hot Taj Mahal Super Bowl contest in 2005.[6] She is best known for appearing as a swimsuit model in Maxim in 2007.[2][7] In 2008, she was named Miss Bikini-USA's Model of the Year.[8] The following year Allemand placed first in the bikini short class of the NPC Arnold Amateur Championships.[9] In addition to modeling, Allemand worked for the modeling and creative-fields consultancy Dream It Make It.[2]
Allemand said in an interview that she has always had a passion for acting and performing.[5] She is a former professional ballet dancer,[5] but her dancing career was shortened after she injured her hamstring and Achilles tendon.[10] Nevertheless, Allemand took acting classes in high school and college.[5] (Allemand attended Hartford College.)[11] In 2010, she was selected to play a role in an upcoming film produced by Brett Ratner on the life of actor Gianni Russo. She was cast to play the supporting role of actress Ava Gardner, who was considered one of the most beautiful women of her time.[12] Russo personally cast her for the role saying, "Gia looks a lot like Ava, but it's really the passion that she had that convinced me to cast her."[13]
Television
Allemand's work in television began when she was selected as a cast member on ABC's reality show The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love, season 14 of The Bachelor series which first aired on January 4, 2010. The show placed her with 24 other women all contending for the affection of pilotJake Pavelka. She was the second to the last contestant eliminated by Pavelka.[14] On February 18, 2010 Allemand appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she discussed her life after being on The Bachelor.[15]
Afterward, Allemand joined the cast of ABC's Bachelor spinoff, Bachelor Pad.[16] The show premiered August 9, 2010 on ABC. She entered the show as the only contestant in a committed relationship.[17] Allemand cited the relationship as the reason why she refused to participate in the show's "kissing contest" game which led to her elimination in the third episode.[16] Before appearing on Bachelor Pad Allemand was featured in a special edition of ABC's 20/20: Inside the Bachelor: Stories Behind the Rose.[18]
Allemand appeared in a television pilot produced in 2010 by writer-director Michael Plumides, Robert Filion, Bill Walker, and Anne Saunders, titled Ghost Trek.[19] The series pilot is a comic horror theme based on a paranormal reality show.[19] Allemand plays the role of Shawna Leibowitz, who is the girlfriend of Dr. Zeke Wallace (Michael Melendez), an ex-chiropractor turned paranormal investigator. Filming for the pilot episode began on December 10–13, 2010 in Charlotte, North Carolina.[19] The pilot, completed in mid-2011, was titled, Ghost Trek: The Kinsey Report and was test-marketed at horror conventions across the US in 2011 and 2012 and won several awards.{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE4Jv_TwmFc} The pilot ran in four webisodes during October 2012 on www.dreadcentral.com. Gia was to reprise her role in the Ghost Trek feature film and re-tweeted the project's Amazon Studios link on July 17th, 2013. The Ghost Trek feature film is currently #2 in the "Horror" category.[when?]
Death
On August 12, 2013, Allemand was admitted to University Hospital in New Orleans for an attempt at suicide by hanging.[20] She was declared brain dead and removed from life support two days later at age 29.[3] She had recently moved from Manorville, New York, on Long Island, to New Orleans to live with her boyfriend, NBA basketball player Ryan Anderson.[4]
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