Have Faith will succeed

MANILA, Philippines – Hazel Faith Capacete dela Cruz nurtured her love for music early on, singing at three years old in her family church in UCCP Kundiman. She became one of the youth members of the choir and the youngest of its praise and worship group, C-Major.

In school, she was active in various activities at Trinity University of Asia (then known as Trinity College of Quezon City) where she was chosen to represent the institution for various interschool competitions, particularly the YMCA Youth Congress. For three consecutive years, she placed second in the Song Adaptation category and third in the Solo Singing Competition, apart from being named Ms. YMCA Youth Congress first runner-up. On her high school graduation, she was awarded the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Award of Excellence in Culture and Arts. It was also during high school when Hazel began writing songs.

Her 18th birthday would mark a great change in her life. After a family friend introduced her to musical arranger Albert Tamayo, Hazel recorded five of her original songs and made a CD titled Leap of Faith as a giveaway at her debut party. Albert also encouraged Hazel to pursue music as he saw a potential in her raw talent. She focused instead on her studies and finishing her architecture degree at Mapua Institute of Technology.

As a student, she, nevertheless, joined the Glee Send Off to Hollywood Contest by Solar Entertainment, where she showed that she was a super fan of the Glee show and sang her original song, Can’t Comprehend. Unexpectedly, she won and was sent to the US for a walk-in part in the hit TV series. From there, Hazel became known in the Internet and in Glee forums as the “lucky gleek.”

After finishing her studies, Hazel worked as a junior architect for seven months. Then, she was invited by an agent to play a bit role in the GMA series, Kasalanan Bang Ibigin Ka. This once again brought her to the show business industry. Soon, she was getting more calls from different shows.

Taking this as a sign, Hazel decided to take her chances and quit her office job. She began to work weekly as a bit player in various shows until she became a part of director Jeffrey Jeturian’s Ekstra/the Bit Player. Her role as Olga, the young and idealistic bit player, became a supporting character to no less than Star of All Seasons, Gov. Vilma Santos. Direk Jeffrey then invited her to join the cast of the hit daytime series, Be Careful With My Heart, as the best friend flight attendant to Maya (Jodi Sta. Maria).

She has since made other indie films and became a lead in historical musical, Ang Kababaihan ng Malolos.

She has been cast as a lead in an international independent series produced by Lantern Films about a family in the 1500’s that suffered a curse that haunted them for four generations. Acting alongside the likes of Pen Medina, Hazel also continues to hone her skills via Star Magic Workshops under the guidance of director Rhayan Carlos.

Hazel has since revived her singing interest after Albert introduced her to Curve Entertainment, which signed her up as a recording artist. Her first single, Plastic, written by Andrei Dinoisio, is now available on iTunes and other online music stores. The music video can be seen on Curve’s YouTube channel.

2014 has truly been good to Hazel Faith with her landing as one of the Top 15 finalists in this year’s Himig Handog P-Pop Love Songs for her composition Everything Takes Time. Not only did she appear as composer in the annual songwriting tilt but she was also commissioned to interpret and record the song. During the finals night, she performed with some of the best OPM singers around.

Aside from her recurring role in Be Careful With My Heart, she also appears on GMA 7’s bayani-serye Ilustrado.