Maine Mendoza

Early life

Mendoza was born and raised in Santa Maria, Bulacan, Philippines, to Mary Ann Capili Mendoza and Teodoro Mendoza, Jr. She has two brothers and two sisters. All of the names of her siblings also start with "Nico."

She finished her elementary education at St. Paul School of Sta. Maria and high school at St. Paul College of Bocaue in Bulacan. She completed a bachelor's degree in hotel, restaurant and institution management major in culinary arts at De La Salle-College of St. Benilde . She had her internship at The Sagamore in Bolton Landing, New York.

Acting career

In the early part of 2015, Mendoza's career started after she posted a Dubsmash compilation on Facebook. A compilation in which she impersonated Kris Aquino went viral with one million views overnight. This earned her the title "Queen of Dubsmash" in the Philippines. Subsequently, she was cast as Yaya Dub (also known as Divina Ursula Bukbukova Smash), the personal assistant of Lola Nidora (portrayed by Wally Bayola), on Eat Bulaga!'s "Juan For All, All For Juan" segment and first appeared on July 4, 2015. Her character in the segment was paired accidentally with fellow Eat Bulaga! co-host Alden Richards, on July 16, 2015, in a romantic-comedy sketch part of the show titled "Kalyeserye"; the couple became popularly known as "AlDub". In November 2015, Mendoza joined the cast of Princess in the Palace as Chef Elize, her first appearance in an actual teleserye. In December 2015, she appeared as a guest star in the TV sitcom Vampire Ang Daddy Ko and in the Sunday noontime variety show Sunday PinaSaya.

Mendoza and Richards starred in a 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) entry entitled My Bebe Love #KiligPaMore together with Vic Sotto and Ai-Ai de las Alas. Jose Javier Reyes, the director of the film, confirmed the inclusion of Mendoza in the motion picture. Mendoza plays Anna Carillo, the stubborn and rebellious child of Vic Sotto's character. She was given the Best Supporting Actress award by the MMFF for her role.

In December 2015, they appeared in GMA Network's station ID commercial for Christmas. Even though she appears in GMA, she is not a member of the GMA Artist Center and her career is being managed by Triple A, the talent management arm of Antonio P. Tuviera who is the executive producer of Eat Bulaga!.

Mendoza participated in the Lenten season drama specials of Eat Bulaga! in March 2016. She reprised her role as Divina/Yaya Dub in Kaputol ng Buhay and starred as Dani in God Gave Me You where she won the Darling of the Screen award and was nominated for Most Dramatic Performance by a Lead Star in Eat Bulaga!'s 3rd EB Dabarkads Awards held on April 2, 2016. Mendoza and Richards starred in film Imagine You & Me as lead actors. Some of the scenes of the film were shot in Como, Italy and the lyrics of the film's theme song is written and sung by Mendoza herself while the music is done by Vic Sotto.

In 2017, Mendoza and Richards starred in their first prime time television series Destined to be Yours where Mendoza played the role as Sinag Obispo, a radio DJ and the love interest of Benjie Rosales who is an architect played by Richards.

Modeling and endorsements

Mendoza and Richards have done a number of product endorsements while Mendoza also appeared in a number of advertisements by herself. She has appeared as the cover girl for Meg magazine and Preview magazine for November 2015. Mendoza and the cast of "Kalyeserye" segment were featured on YES! magazine's November 2015 issue. Mendoza and Richards appeared on the covers of Reader's Digest Asia, a special issue of YES! magazine, and Inside Showbiz and PeopleAsia in December 2015. Aside from being in the cover of PeopleAsia, Mendoza together with Richards received the People of the Year award in 2016 from the magazine. In recognition of Mendoza's effectiveness as a product endorser, she became the Trinitian Awardee for Most Valuable Female Advertising Endorser during Platinum Stallion Awards (Awards for Advertising) in 2016.

Mendoza and Richards were on the cover again of the January 2016 issue of YES! magazine. On the same month, the couple was the first showbiz personalities to land on the cover of BizNews Asia. In the 2016 calendar of Disney Channel Asia, Mendoza appeared as Elsa from the Disney film Frozen. Mendoza appeared in the February 2016 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine with Richards and Esquire Philippines with Jose Manalo, Wally Bayola and Paolo Ballesteros.

In July 2016, Mendoza together with Richards appeared on the cover of YES! magazine for the third time and led the magazine's list of Most Beautiful Stars of 2016. In the same month, Mendoza landed in the 21st rank of FHM Philippines' 100 Sexiest Women for 2016 as a new entry while in July 2017, she climbed a few notches higher and ranked as the 9th sexiest woman. For it's 25th year anniversary, Mega Magazine named Mendoza as one of the Philippines' "25 iconic women" and she was one of the 25 different covers of their hard bound book Mega Stories. She was also featured on the cover of the Cosmopolitan Philippines magazine's 20th anniversary special.

According to Soltero Salazar of the Association of Philippine Advertisers in June 2017, Mendoza surpassed Kris Aquino as the top celebrity endorser in the Philippines. Soltero added that Aquino has been a top endorser since the 1990s but when she departed from ABS-CBN in 2017 making her rarely seen in television, the advertisers preferred Mendoza instead. With 30 product endorsements in 2016, Mendoza became a top endorser due to her popularity and wholesome image.

Writing career

Mendoza has been maintaining a personal blog since 2012 and she revealed in April 2017 that she is planning to release a book in the latter part of 2017 and her blog is one of her inspirations in writing the book. According to her, the book, which will focus on her personal life, will have no ghostwriters as she will personally write the book herself.

Other ventures

Mendoza was part of Eat Bulaga! Sa Tamang Panahon benefit concert on October 24, 2015 held at the Philippine Arena where PHP 14 million was raised for the program's AlDub Library Project.

Advocacy

Mendoza is a supporter of the causes of the Lumads in Mindanao, who experienced expulsion from their lands, persecution, and killings. Her brother-in-law John Carlos Catalan is a member of the group AlDub for Lumad, which supported a caravan by Lumad leaders in Surigao City. Brigadier General Joey Kakilala, commander of the Civil Relations Office of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, criticized Mendoza and other celebrities on supporting the Lumads saying that they do not know the real story behind the Lumads' cause and are being misled.

Entrepreneurship

Mendoza ventured in the fast food chain business after she bought a franchise of an American-based hamburger restaurant, which she also endorses. Her restaurant formally opened in August 11, 2017 at her hometown, Barangay Sta. Clara, Santa Maria, Bulacan. The exact location of her business is said to be located near the gasoline station business of her family.

Filmography

Mendoza was featured in several television news magazine, and talk shows on GMA Network including Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho,CelebriTV, and Tonight with Arnold Clavio. Rico Hizon interviewed Mendoza along with Richards for a BBC special report. She also appeared in Lip Sync Battle Philippines through a video-taped recording during the fourth episode of the show in March 2016 where she gave lip-syncing tips to Alden Richards who was the guest of the show. The actress appeared in a series of vignettes explaining what to do and not to do in the 2016 Philippine general elections as part of GMA News and Public Affairs coverage of the elections dubbed as Eleksyon 2016.

In October 2016, it was revealed that Mendoza has a cameo role in the film Enteng Kabisote 10 and the Abangers.

Accolades

In December 2015, Mendoza got a star at the Philippine Walk of Fame at Eastwood City, Libis, Quezon City along with her "Kalyeserye" co-stars and was named Favorite Young Actress in the 5th OFW Gawad Parangal. Mendoza was also given a Makabatang Alagad ng Telebisyon (Child-friendly Artist on Television) seal by Anak TV in February 2016. Mendoza also won several awards in the Nuffnang Philippines Bloggers Awards. She also won Female TV Star of the Year and Female Breakout Star of the Year for 2016 in the PEPList Awards Year 3 by the Philippine Entertainment Portal.

Aside from being given accolades for her performance as an artist, as a citizen in the Philippines, the Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue at the regional district office in Caloocan City acknowledged Mendoza in August 2017 as the top individual regional tax payer.

Reception

Being the Philippines' most googled female personality in 2015, Mendoza is considered to have wide influence on the Internet and social media as recognized by award-giving bodies, earning her title as the Social Media Queen. She has also been nicknamed as The Phenomenal Star.

In October 2015, Mendoza's Twitter account became the third fastest growing profile, her followers increased to 1,094,813 in just a few months. Due to her popularity, her social media accounts were hacked twice. One of those hacks happened in November 2015 where her Twitter was taken advantage by a group of hackers who identified themselves as Anonymous Philippines. The said group hacked Mendoza's official Twitter account and posted series of tweets promoting the Million Mask March. Despite hacking the account, they promised to return it to the rightful owner. In less than 24 hours, Mendoza was able to get hold of her social media accounts.

After a series of tweets telling fans to stop hateful messages, Mendoza deactivated her Twitter account in June 2017, although, her other social media accounts are still active.

Awards and Nominations