Taliana María Vargas Carrillo (born December 20, 1987) is a Colombian model and

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition in which the contestants are judged and ranked based on various physical and mental attributes. Per its name, beauty pageants traditionally focus on judging the contestants' physical attractiveness, sometimes sol ...

titleholder who was crowned Miss Colombia 2007 and placed 1st Runner-Up at

Miss Universe 2008 Miss Universe 2008 was the 57th Miss Universe pageant, held at the Crown Convention Center in Nha Trang, Vietnam on July 14, 2008. This was the first time that the Miss Universe pageant was broadcast in 1080i High-definition. At the end of t ...

. Vargas is a student of

Journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

at the

Northern Virginia Community College Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC and, informally, NOVA) is a public community college with six campuses and four centers in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. It is the third-largest multi-campus community college in t ...

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. Born and raised in

Santa Marta Santa Marta (), officially the Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta (), is a port List of cities in Colombia, city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is the capital of Magdalena Department and the fou ...

, Colombia, Vargas is of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and Lebanese descent through her grandparents, and has

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

relatives. She speaks fluent

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, English, and

, as well as some

and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Pageantry

Miss Colombia 2007

Vargas was crowned as Miss Colombia on November 12, 2007, thus bringing the first crown to her home department of Magdalena, Colombia. During the three-week-long competition, she was also awarded with the Miss Elegance, Best Face Award and The Queen of the Police.

Miss Universe 2008

During the pageant, Vargas was a top 10 finalist in the Best National Costume competition and in the Best In Bikini event (which had no bearings on the selection of the top 15 semi-finalists), Vargas was awarded 2nd place while Miss Mexico,

Elisa Nájera Elisa Nájera Gualito (born August 16, 1986, in Celaya, Guanajuato) is a Mexican TV host, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Nuestra Belleza México on October 5, 2007, in Manzanillo, Colima. Pageants Nájera competed against ...

, took first place. On 14 July 2008, during the pageant's finals, Vargas was announced as one of the 15 semi-finalists. In the swimsuit competition, she received the highest score with 9.433, thus entering the top 10 in first place. During the evening gown portion, she received one of the highest televised scores in recent years: 9.829. Vargas thus became one of the 5 final contestants, coming in first place. Despite being the clear winner in two out of the three rounds, after the interview portion, it was

Dayana Mendoza Dayana Sabrina Mendoza Uribe (; née Moncada; born 1 June 1986) is a Venezuelan actress, model, film producer, director, and beauty queen. She is the winner of the titles of Miss Venezuela 2007 and Miss Universe 2008. Dayana Mendoza, in 2012, ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

who went on to win the title of

while Vargas ended up as 1st Runner-Up. Colombia has reached the 1st Runner-Up in Miss Universe during three consecutive years:

Paola Turbay Paola Turbay Gómez (born November 29, 1970) is a Colombian-American actress, model, TV host and beauty pageant titleholder. She was a regular in season 3 of the TV series Bosch. Related to Colombian former president Julio César Turbay Ayal ...

in 1992, Paula Andrea Betancourt in 1993, and Carolina Gomez in 1994. Her placement as 1st Runner-Up was the highest one of Colombia until

Paulina Vega Paulina Vega Dieppa (; born January 15, 1993) is a Colombian beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss Universe 2014, she previously won Miss Colombia 2013. Vega was the second Miss Universe from Colombia. Early life Paulina Vega Dieppa was born ...

's victory in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Acting career

Taliana appeared in her first leading role as Niña Cabrales in the

RCN TV RCN may refer to: * '' Radio Cadena Nacional (disambiguation)'', a broadcast network in Colombia ** RCN Radio ** RCN TV * RCN Corporation (formerly Residential Communications Network), a cable television, telephone, and Internet service provider ...

soap opera ''Chepe Fortuna'' in 2010. The show, a huge success in Colombia and other parts of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, won Taliana a

TVyNovelas ''TVyNovelas'' is a Mexican magazine published by Editorial Televisa on a monthly basis. Like soap opera publications in the United States such as ''Soap Opera Digest'' and '' Soaps In Depth'', it mainly carries coverage of Mexican and internat ...

Award for Favourite Actress in a Leading Role.Premio TV y Novelas a Mejor actriz de telenovela: Taliana Vargas de Chepe Fortuna
/ref> Taliana Vargas is the main character in a Colombian soap opera, ''Rafael Orozco El Idolo''. The soap opera is about a Vallenato singer from Valledupar, Colombia and Taliana plays the wife of the singer. In 2017, she played Paola Salcedo, the wife of the Cali Cartel's security chief in the third season of the American series made by

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

; ''

Narcos ''Narcos'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro. Set and filmed in Colombia, seasons 1 and 2 are about Colombian narcoterrorist and drug lord Pablo Escobar, leader ...

''. She has been the image of various brands in Colombia such as

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

Paris Elvive, Studio F,

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

Personal life

Vargas has been married since 15 August 2015 to the Cali politician,

Alejandro Eder Álvaro Alejandro Eder Garcés (born 1 December 1975) is a Colombian politician and specialist in international security policies. He was elected Mayor of Cali in October 2023 and assumed office on 1 January 2024. From 2010 to 2014 he served a ...

, with whom she has two children named Alicia and Antonio. Was active during her husband Alejandro Eder's political campaign for Mayor of Cali. Later on 29 October during the 2023 Colombian regional and municipal elections Alejandro would be elected as the new mayor of Cali, making her the new First Lady of Cali, her new role being that of social manager during the local administration of Alejandro Eder.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vargas, Taliana 1987 births Living people Miss Colombia winners Miss Universe 2008 contestants Colombian beauty pageant winners Colombian people of Lebanese descent Colombian people of Greek descent Colombian female models Eder family