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A few phrases come to mind when I think of 24-year-old, Spanish-English actress, Ana Mulvoy-Ten, but one that stands out the most is force of nature. Born in London, Ana spent most of her childhood in Spain, where she lived out, "the best memories of my childhood. I was 8 and 9 years old getting to dance in the streets of the Spanish village I lived in until 4 a.m." As she got older, England grew on her. "The schools I got to go to in England were great —disciplined and strict. My mom loves the arts, so she used to take me to the opera and ballet, which allowed me to be exposed to the arts," says the bilingual actress who is also fluent in Spanish. However, she wasn't exposed to acting much and is not even sure how any of this came about. "I asked my mom and she said, 'I think you just came out of the womb wanting to be an actress.' I loved watching plays, doing voices, and playing characters. I asked for acting lessons at 7. No one else was doing that." At the age of 14, Ana realized she needed an agent. While most teens were experimenting with makeup, painting their nails, and trying on dresses, Ana was busy calling every agent in London. "A lot of them didn't take me seriously and hung up on me. They told me to go and get experience, but how am I supposed to get experience without an agent? My mom would wait in the car as I went inside to have meetings on my own. I wasn't a kid my parents could really stop." Finally, she landed her first gig in Madrid with a Spanish agent on a Spanish TV show. Flash-forward 11 years, and she's starring in the third season of ABC's hit TV series American Crime as Shae Reese. "Now that I've been living in Los Angeles for awhile, you get up, and go to work. It's what you do. I remember on the last day of filming season three, you could see the Hollywood sign in the background as the sun was shining and I was standing there with Regina King –what an amazing feeling," she remembers. Over the years, Ana has appeared on TV shows like CSI: Cyber, Vanity, and House of Anubis. She notes that playing Shae is the best job of her life. "I'm much more drawn to broken, vulnerable characters. There are so many layers to Shae. Playing the pretty girl is so boring, I don't want to do that. Before filming, my hair was too pretty, so I just started hacking away at it. I guess I got what I asked for," she laughs. "I don't look like me. They wanted to make me look like a girl who was eating burgers and fries and does drugs. It's hard to watch because some of my friends didn't know it was me at first." Before diving into a role, there is an overwhelming amount of script-reading that takes place. For Ana, that number was between 100-150 pages. "I got nine pages of dialogue and had to go in the next day to read. I knew I just had to try my best and see what happens. I woke up at 6 a.m. to learn and memorize the lines. But to have to get into that mindset —that fear and lack of love was definitely super-challenging. I don't think about that stuff. I have wonderful parents, yet I completely believe what is happening when I'm onset. I just do it. It's beyond anything I've ever had to deal with. She's a representation of all the women who don't have a choice. I just kept thinking: Please do her justice." Getting to work with Regina King is pretty major too. "My first day, she had just won an Emmy the day before. I told her congrats and she was so cool. She was so grounded. She is this powerful woman —very confident. I just felt like she was my buddy." Even though Ana has 22 acting credits under her belt, she still gets excited about every audition she goes on. "I'm always surprised by who I might have the opportunity to play." Fans can also catch Ana on Freeform's Famous in Love opposite Bella Thorne premiering April 18th. As for a specific type of character she is eager to play, right now, there isn't one. "I like to just see what happens. I want to play someone who is a challenge, who isn't one-dimensional." If she wasn't acting, Ana paints a picture of her traveling as a writer. But even that idea was never truly an alternative. "Acting is the only thing I ever considered doing. There was nothing else. I never believed in Plan B. If you have only one plan, it has to succeed." Ana has not let anything in her path stop her. Some might say, like a force of nature. ML Keep up with Ana on Instagram and Twitter: @AnaMulvoyTen and don't miss American Crime on ABC, Sunday at 10/9C.