Catalina Guirado was TFI Friday's Gorgeous Girl at the height of Cool Britannia, then walked away from it all for Hollywood.
Booked for one show, she stayed nearly two years, right in the middle of the Oasis, Met Bar, lads' mag nineties. England only ever saw the Gorgeous Girl, never the violin prodigy who played the Royal Albert Hall at twelve, was discovered by Vogue at fifteen, and signed to Universal as a singer songwriter.
So, Catalina moved to LA, not to act, but because everything was a possibility.
Now she is restoring the name of her father, Spanish surrealist Juan Antonio Guirado, whose work is in the Reina Sofía, and once traded three of his paintings for an Arabian show horse. She paints too, mostly horses and cats, and teaches creative wellness, using art as stress relief for neurodivergent adults and, next, dementia patients.
At home beneath the Hollywood sign, Bertie, her part-Bengal rescue, rules Bertie Towers, a floor-to-ceiling pole he has been known to knock clean over.
Jelly, the feral beauty of the block, sees off coyotes on camera.
In the studio with Chrissy, she spills on Britpop, the art world's murkier corners, and a Bengal who escapes like Steve McQueen.
Gorgeous Girl. Surrealist's daughter. Staff to a Bengal.
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