Kalila was last seen on TV as the Oracle in “Imortal”. In films, her most memorable role was as the crusading nun in the indie film “Haw Ang” for which she got a best actress nomination. “I also played character roles in the movies of John Lloyd Cruz,” he says. “Ilang beses na kong kinuha ni Director Cathy Molina. I also just finished ‘Bisperas’ with Director Jeffrey Jeturian where I play the Blessed Virgin in the Panunuluyan sequences of this film which is about a family and the seven deadly sins.”
She’s actually a painter by profession. “I finished fine arts in UP and I’ve had my own exhibits. Then I got involved with costume and production design for theatre. Nestor Torre saw me and since I also sing, he asked me to try acting. He first got me for ‘Magnificat’, which had a long run. Doon na ko na-in love sa acting. Tapos, kinuha na ako sa Cultural Center of the Philippines in Tanghalang Pilipino and I was in their musical versions of ‘Noli Me Tangere’ and ‘El Filibusterismo’. I was also in the musicals ‘Zsa Zsa Zaturnaahh’, “Three Penny Opera’, ‘Atang’ and ‘Dragon Tales’.”
A single mom with two kids, Mika and Tamara, she first became a mom when she was 24 and her eldest is now 11 years old. Her two pieces in “Vagina Monologues” are “The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could” (one of the most controversial monologues about a woman with traumatic sexual experiences in childhood and her positive healing experience as a teenager with an older woman) and “Because He Likes to Look at It” (about a woman who thought her private part is ugly, until she find a man who likes to spend hours just looking at it.) This will be shown at Teatrino Greenhills this April 28 and 29.
