Photography by Kaden
Beauty & Grace Personified
Our latest cover model Danielle Ruiz has had a very successful modeling and acting career spanning well over a decade, with credits like CSI Miami, Entourage, The Bookie, and LA’s Finest to her name.
She’s also appeared on the cover of numerous magazines, and worked as an ambassador for popular brands like Rockstar, Monster, Miss Hawaiian Tropic, and of course The World Poker Tour.
Sit back and enjoy, as the mesmerizing star walks us through her journey, and shares updates on her family life, including the reasoning behind her decision to focus primarily on her new career path as a real estate agent. And finally, don’t miss the legendary story of how she initially thought about working for the WSOP instead of the WPT – Well, kind of, sort of…
Tell us a little about your childhood. Where were you born? Do you have any siblings?
Yeah, so I’m a native of LA. I grew up in the Hollywood Hills. I’m the oldest of four siblings. I have two sisters and one brother. Our backyard was literally Universal Studios. So we could see from our bedrooms, stuff like the Jaws ride. I think they took it out because it was scaring (us) kids (laughing).
Typically there was a guy in a boat and then the Jaws, the shark, would rip the guy out and you could hear the screams – like that’s how close we were. I grew up in that whole industry.
LA has a reputation for being kind of wild. What was it like growing up there as a teenager? Did you party a lot?
I did kind of like run amok, like when I was super young, so by the time I was maybe 22, it was like, ‘Who goes to clubs anymore’, you know?
My childhood was super fun though. It was great! And my parents are still together – over 30 years now.
Tell us about your parents.
My dad’s a musician. He’s still a professional bass player. Um, yeah, so I grew up in that ‘Hollywood’ kind of scene. but since I’m a native, it’s a little different.
Does he still tour? What genre of music?
He still tours and stuff. Last year he opened up for Tim McGraw. He’s been a musician all his life. He still plays cover bands all over LA.
He does a lot of rock, country rock – Allman Brothers type vibes, Zeppelin, bunch of the 80s. It just depends. But yeah, he’s still doing it.
He’s a rocker. He’s a rocker, for sure.
My mom has had her own mortgage broker company for over 20 years now. So she’s all business.
That’s where I kind of – I’m a mix of my parents. My dad’s super creative. My mom’s super business – she’s Columbian – she’s the backbone of our whole family.
What was school like for you? Were you a good student? Did you play any sports?
I was not a good student, like, at all. Like academically zero. I barely passed high school (laughing).
It was just not my thing. I liked to have fun, and I was always dreaming of bigger things, so yeah, high school was definitely not me.
I remember one of my girlfriends had told me, and it definitely hit home and always stuck with me – she was like, ‘Danielle, you’re never going to do anything with your life. You just want to party.’
Then right after high school, I landed all these gigs. I was like, ‘Say what? I’m in South Africa, so I can’t make your little toga party. I gotta bounce to Italy!’ (laughing).
So, I’m not friends with any of my best friends from high school, because they didn’t expect anything from me. They told me I wouldn’t amount to anything – then I did everything that they didn’t think I could. So, yeah, I used it (negativity) as motivation. It’s kind of wild when I think about it.
As far as sports, I actually was the captain of cheerleading, basketball, volleyball… I wasn’t the captain of softball, but I had to play that in order to win athlete of the year – which I did.
After volleyball games and practice, I went straight to gymnastics to train for Junior Olympics. I’d go from like 4 p.m. till about 8 p.m.. So I was into sports and gymnastics constantly. I was a flyer.
A flyer?
Yeah, where you get, like, thrown in the air.
Oh wow! That’s next level.
Um, yeah. They have a plaque in my school with my name on it.
What about now? Are you still athletic? Do you hike, mountain climb, or anything like that?
Oh, God no! I’m not like that anymore. I quit after my junior year, I was done with sports and stuff like that. I had other interests.
I started to work in the fashion industry, and that’s actually how I started to do modeling. One of my hobbies was designing and coming up with clothing lines. I was always super creative.
How did your time with WPT come about?
It’s a really funny story. So I was already doing a lot of work in the industry representing brands. I was Miss Rockstar energy drink. I did stuff with Monster. I was already out and about in like, my career.
And so a casting director at the time found me on Facebook. I’d never heard of the World Poker Tour. I didn’t really know anything about poker, but I was already traveling with motocross teams as a host and doing signings and stuff.
And she asked, ‘Do you want to travel?’
I was like, ‘Obviously, yeah.’ It (WPT gig) was definitely in my vibe. She said, ‘It’s poker. Do you know anything about poker? They’re casting all over the United States. They have thousands of girls auditioning.’
And I was like, ‘No, but you know what? I’m down. I’ll audition.’
And it just so happened that the casting place was down the street from the place that I had just moved into in LA.
So I had my friend come with me, who was helping me move. I was like, I’ll be right back. Go grab us some coffee while I run into this place real quick. I’m like, ‘It’s going to be like in and out. I’ve done so many auditions. It doesn’t take more than ten minutes.’
I’m in there for like an hour. She’s having me film, and talk into the camera. She really likes me. So I got past the first audition part.
The second audition you had to go into the headquarters in Irvine, California to meet with the CEO, the president, and one of the film guys, to show them you could talk on camera.
So me, just being the person I am, I’m like, ‘Hey guys, whatsup?’ – you know, like whatever. They said, “Let’s see if you can talk on camera – Say, ‘Hey, welcome back to the World Poker Tour.'”
And I say, ‘Hey, Welcome back to the World Series of Poker.’
Like I told you, I didn’t know anything about poker at the time. I guess ‘World Series’ just stuck out to me. They looked at me kinda stunned. And Adam Pliska, who’s like the president still to this day, busts out laughing.
I was like, ‘Oh, my bad.’ The film guy goes, ‘Do you even know what you’re at?’
So I was like, “Oops, can I do that again? ‘Welcome back to the World Poker Tour.'”
So I called my dad afterward. I’m like, ‘Oh, I totally f*d that up!’
Next thing you know, the casting director calls and says, ‘Well, you obviously made an impression. You’re in!’
And Adam still to this day is like, ‘We can never get rid of you.’ So 13 years plus later, they’re like, ‘You know, let’s just say we didn’t hire you for your skills of poker, that’s for sure.’
Hilarious! But look at the success those guys have had. So obviously they knew what they were doing. What do you like most about the job? Traveling to cool places must be fun.
Um, honestly, yeah traveling.
When I was like seven years old, someone asked me, ‘What do you want to do or be when you grow up?’ And I was like, ‘I want to get paid to travel the world.’
So I had manifested all this at a very young age.
Traveling with WPT in my twenties was amazing. I was able to go, truly, all over the world, plus I had other modeling gigs – Dubai, Hong Kong, you name it…
And still, to this day it’s amazing. We’ve added more people, which for me is great, because now I have a family and my real estate career, and we can kind of pick and choose when we want to go. But yeah, I’m still involved. It’s so much fun!
Speaking of real estate, what made you decide to enter that field?
So as I got older, I knew I could only be traveling so much, because I have two little kids. I have a nine-month-old and a four-year-old.
I knew I needed something different. Since I had built up my contacts all over the world – being with WPT and all the other gigs I’ve done, I realized I kind of have like a rolodex of people that I could utilize as contacts for real estate. So I decided to get my license.
I started studying for the test during COVID, and then I stopped. I didn’t pass right away, or even the next. Like I mentioned, I’m not a great student, but I kept at it. Finally, when everything opened back up, I was able to go in and pass. I’ve been licensed for a little over a year now.
I have a license in California where I live, but we also have a family house in Nashville, so I’m getting my license in Tennessee too.
But right now, it’s just California, but I’ll eventually be working in both places.
When you get your license, typically it takes about a year for a new agent to really start getting things rolling, you know, you don’t have any clients – but I got a buyer within two weeks.
I was still literally setting up the apps, learning how the business side of things works, but I closed my first deal in the first month.
People were like, ‘Wait what?’
And I was like, ‘Well, I’ve proved myself once again to everyone! You told me I couldn’t do it. What else can I do?’
You know, I was pregnant with my second child when I started. I had to slow down, but now I’m back. He’s nine months, so I can get out again.
It’s tough with two kids, two little ones.
Your ability to shift from a modeling and acting career into a new phase in your life is truly impressive. A lot of young girls in LA grow up dreaming of having the successes you’ve had. What advice do you have for them? What’s the secret to your success?
Trust yourself. Don’t listen to anyone.
I know that’s kind of like a double negative, because you’d be listening to me (laughing). But if I listened to everyone who said I wouldn’t amount to anything, I wouldn’t be where I am right now. I’m in a great place! Now I’m just going with the flow.
Last but certainly not least, how did you meet your fiancé, Brandon?
Actually, I met him at a photo shoot. A mutual friend of ours has a company I was shooting for, and he was just hanging out.
He knows people in the poker industry too. He plays on ClubWPT (free/subscription online poker), so we have a lot of mutual friends. That’s kind of how we connected, in a sense.
Anyways, after the shoot, he told our mutual friend, ‘I’m going to marry that chick.’
I was like, ‘Ah, okay, and brushed it off.’
And I just never talked to him much for a while after that, but he kept in touch on social media now and then.
So, I was in his area in Orange County, California, I lived in LA at the time, and I stopped by. Long story short, I didn’t leave his house for like two weeks. I just hung out the whole time, cleared my schedule, and we got engaged within a month.
So now we hang out with each other a lot (laughing). Yeah, I know, five years later, thank God it worked out.
He knew it right away. It just took me a little longer to figure it out, but I did.
And now we have two beautiful kids!!
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