Anya Benton was born as Anna Vladislavovna Zabolotnaya in Moscow, Russia. Shortly after the fall of communism, her parents separated and she moved to Boston, Massachusetts at the age of ten with her mother. Almost immediately, Anya fell in love with a career in acting and modeling. She begged her mother to allow her to take John Robert Powers classes and loved being in front of the camera or just performing at home. She was even in a television commercial for a local locksmith company before she was able to fully speak English.Three years later Anya and her mother moved to the beautiful beach-front La Jolla community in San Diego where Anya finished middle school and high school. In high school, Anya began to work locally as a model and began participating in high school drama classes and theatrical productions. She also took classes at the John Casablanca Academy and the local junior theater school. Because Anya always took education very seriously, she went on to attend UCLA after graduating Cum Laude from La Jolla High School in 2002. There she majored in Mass Communications and double minored in Russian Studies and Spanish Language. She was also an active volunteer through the Kiwanis Family and traveled to Spain to study abroad during one of the summers. Although she modeled and acted through college, she focused most of her efforts on her courses. As a result, she was able to graduate from UCLA in only three years as a trilingual Cum Laude student.Anya was planning to take some time off after college, but unfortunately was unable to do so. Only months after her graduation, Anya's father died suddenly in Russia where he had still lived. This was clearly an unexpected event and was very hard on Anya. She spent most of the following year and a half in Russia grieving and taking care of the estate.Although her father's death was one of the hardest things Anya ever had to endure, it made her a stronger person. It also motivated her to pursue her acting and modeling career like never before since it made her realize how short life can be. She began taking acting classes, doing student and independent films, working on print and runway modeling projects, and doing commercial work. She diligently continues to improve her craft everyday and to enrich her knowledge of the business. She is now working on various acting and modeling projects as well as taking several acting courses.