Born in Las Vegas on February 7, 1979, Cerina discovered early on that she loved to perform. Her mom—a dance instructor—encouraged her daughter’s dreams. Cerina soon found herself performing in a Christmas production at Diskin Elementary School. Ambitious from the start, Cerina learned the lines for all the characters, not just her own, something her parents found both odd and amusing. She then started performing at the Rainbow Company Youth Theater, a program sponsored by Las Vegas’ Cultural Affairs division, where Cerina did some modeling as well as acting. At 16, Cerina won the Miss Nevada Teen USA pageant, an experience that helped reaffirm her pursuit of stardom. Cerina never thought she would win, and though thrilled, she was left a bit jaded by the cutthroat nature of the competition.
After graduating Durango High School in 1997, Cerina moved to Los Angeles and went to school at Marymount College on scholarship. She squeezed in auditions in between classes, and despite the crammed schedule, Cerina pulled off a perfect 4.0 her first year. Her auditions paid off as much as her studying: she landed several commercials and a role on “USA High” for the USA Network. Cerina quickly followed this with her first film role as the bratty teenager, June, in “Fear Runs Silent” (1999), a thriller starring Billy Dee Williams and Stacy Keach. Cerina tried to continue college, but acting began to consume her life. She landed her biggest role yet as Maya, the Yellow Ranger on the hit kid’s show, “Power Rangers Lost Galaxy” (1999). Cerina became famous virtually overnight—at least amongst the pre-pubescent set. Her role on Power Rangers exposed her to more television roles: she played Kitty on MTV’s “Undressed” (2000), and appeared on episodes of “Son of the Beach” (2000), “Malcolm in the Middle” (2000), “Felicity” (2001) and “Ally McBeal” (2002).
Cerina returned to her role as Maya for the straight-to-video release, “Power Rangers in 3D: Triple Force” (2000), but that would be all for her foray into kiddy fair. She appeared in “Not Another Teen Movie” as Areola, a foreign exchange student who walks around completely naked, though nobody seems to notice. The role was a challenge for Cerina, because she never had to do nudity—she never even auditioned for a nude role before. But ultimately, she found the role liberating and became more comfortable. However, Cerina didn’t want to be pigeonholed as the ‘booby girl’ and, along with her agent, sought roles that didn’t require exposing her body. That would not come to pass, however, because her next role—as the horny teenager, Marcy, in Eli Roth’s “Cabin Fever”—required the nudity she sought to avoid. But Cerina understood that director Roth wanted nudity in order to revive a horror film tradition, so she was a good sport. However, her agent negotiated the appropriate amount for Cerina: Roth wanted to expose her entire rear, but her agent would only give him an inch—literally. The role turned out to be enjoyable, particularly the nude scene toward the end, where she made love to her boyfriend while her body was being eaten away by the virus—more gross than sexy, which may have been the point: the image might give pause the next time someone wants to cast her as the ‘booby girl.’