NIKOLAS AND EMILY
TYLER | NATALIA

Peachy Keen
By: Tara Shaffer
Soap Opera Digest
August 20, 2003

Just the Facts...

Birthdate: March 26
Hails From: "I was born in Pennsylvania, then we moved to Puerto Rico and lived there for about two years and then we moved to Macon, Georgia."
Marital Status: Single
Name Game: "Everyone on the set calls me Natty - my parents do, too."
Georgia On Her Mind: "Macon is my home. When I was growing up, it was pretty small. Now, it's the second largest city in Georgia. But being Georgia, that's not really too large [laughs]."
La Familia: "My mom's from Mexico, and my dad's from Pennsylvania. I have a brother who's three years younger than me."

Did You Know?

Livingston....

• has relatives in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she used to spend her summers growing up.
• is messy.
• does not have a green thumb, despite her job in The Home Depot's gardening department. "Everything I plant dies," she laughs.
• doesn't have cable, but admits to watching a few reality shows and the news.
• studied ballet before acting.
• has a Spanish-teaching mother who only spoke Spanish to her family members growing up. "We would then have to answer back in English," she says.

How GH's Georgia Girl Natalia Livingston Kicks Back On Cloud Nine While Staying Grounded.

The story of Natalia Livingston's (Emily, GENERAL HOSPITAL) journey to stardome begins on a familiar note: She drove cross-country from Small Town, U.S.A., to Hollywoof in hopes of making it big. But the next chapter doesn't include hte cynicism or bloated ego that can accompany success. This sweet and sincere Georgian hasn't changed much in the three years since she packed her bags and left Macon. "Everything in my life is pretty much the dane," she shrugs. "I live in the same apartment [that I got when I moved out here], I have the same friends and I still have my car that's about to break down [laughs]. It's an old Jeep Cherokee that I've had since high school."

Although her interest in film was evident early on, Livingston went to Emory University in Atlanta, where she received her degree in sociology. "I ended up working at an orphanage in Mexico for a while," she recalls. "I taught Spanish - it was actually after I took an acting class in college." After graduation, Livingston worked at a hospital and interned with a social worker for a year-and-a-half. She loved it, but something nagged at her. "I kept thinking, 'I have to try this now, as far as going out to California and trying the acting thing.'"

So, that's what she did. "It was never my intention to move to California; I was pretty happy in Georgia and being with my family," she confides. "But then, my parents said, 'This is the time, and you have to try it now so you don't have regrets later on in life.'" Once Livingston made it to Los Angeles, she jumped right into classes, plays and student films. "I did pretty much everything I could do, but I wasn't getting paid for it," she laughs. That's where The Home Depot came in. "I didn't want to wait tables or work anywhere at night. I thought, 'Where's a job that I can work during the day and go out on auditions?' So, I went into Home Depot."

She worked in the gardening department for two-and-a-half years - and it was there that Livingston was noticed by an agent, who helped her land the part of Emily on GH. While she was in Georgia last year for the holidays, she made her own audition tape. "I worked at a local TV station in high school and in college, so I had a bunch of friends who worked there and had access to lighting equipment, cameras and all that kind of stuff," the actress recalls. "They came over to my house, we taped a scene in my living room and I sent it in," Two months later, Livingston was awarded the role.

Today, the newcomer is flourishing in a front-burner storyline involving her character's fight with breast cancer - something that hit home. "Before I even auditioned for GENERAL HOSPITAL, I did a self breast exam and found a lump in my breast," Livingston explains. " I went to the hospital and had the needle aspiration. It came back benign and everything was okay, but I ended up learning that breast cancer can affect younger women." It wasn't until two weeks after she was hired that Livingston learned about Emily's cancer storyline. "It was pretty ironic," she marvels.

As for her own future, Livingston doesn't want to speculate. "I'm so happy where I am right now, honestly," she says. "My life has changed so much in the last five months, I can't even tell you. It's been like night and day for me, so I'm just enjoying every minute right now."