Original name, Charlotte Lopez born September 25, 1976, in San Juan, PuertoRico.
Ayanna, who lived in an orphanage in her adolescent years, signed up for the Miss Teen USA competition in 1993 on a $150 bet with her orphanage director. Ayanna won. The director never paid.She is the only acceptable reason to watch the Ricky Martin video for "She's All I Ever Had."A native of Puerto Rico, she changed her last name from Lopez to Ayanna, which she says is Cherokee for blessed.She told Esquire to relate to the world that she is "single. And looking."She's starring in the just-released Love the Hard Way, as a naughty biology grad student alongside fresh Oscar winner Adrien Brody.She's not exactly Victorian in her attitude about onscreen nudity, pointing out that her topless scenes with Brody were "pretty liberating. I don't have a problem with my body."
