Manny Santos
From Degrassi Wiki
Manuella "Manny" Santos (born August 15, 1989) is portrayed by Cassie Steele. She is called "the School Slut" multiple times in the show due to her 'hot' appearance and promiscuous activities.
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| Manuella Santos | |
|---|---|
| Biographical information | |
| Gender |
Female |
| Eye color |
Brown |
| Hair color |
Dark Brown |
| Born |
1989 |
| Relationships |
Craig Manning |
| Job |
Actress |
| Behind the scenes | |
| First appearance |
Mother and Child Reunion Part 1 |
| Portrayer | |
Contents |
[edit] Season 1
Manny is first seen helping her best friend Emma Nelson out of a jam involving a boy the Emma met over the Internet and wanted to meet in person, but who tried to rape her. Manny continued to help Emma throughout season one with her causes and personal dilemmas. She was also very supportive of her relationship with Sean.
On her first day of high school, Manny and Emma were both bullied by Spinner. Spinner stopped when Manny cried and tricked him. They also met Liberty and were seen with J.T and Toby.
She begins her trajectory in popularity by joining Paige Michalchuk's Spirit Squad, despite Emma's complaints that it is sexist. When Manny refused to back down from Emma (or from Paige and Hazel when they try to take advantage), she gains their respect and a place on the squad.
[edit] Season 2
With Spike Nelson and Snake Simpson's wedding approaching, Manny notices Sean Cameron's lingering affection for Emma. She discusses Sean's affection with Emma, and encourages her to invite him to the wedding. When Emma refuses, Manny takes matters into her own hands and plays matchmaker by secretly giving him an invitation. When things get hectic, Manny reveals she invited him which angers Emma. The two exchange insults about meddling (Emma meddles by telling Snake that Spike is pregnant and is considering an abortion), but quickly cool off. Thus, Manny is the key catalyst to Sean and Emma's second relationship.
[edit] Season 3
At the beginning of her freshman year, Manny finally started to come into her own. A popular, upperclassman, soccer player named Sully caught Manny's eye, but her attempts to get his attention went unnoticed. While bemoaning her "cute" reputation with Paige, the older girl told her that if she didn't like her image, she should simply change it. Manny took the advice and her new appearance took "sexy" to the edge. While she was ogled by the entire male student body for wearing visible thongs and skimpy tops, Emma and Liberty Van Zandt feared she was sacrificing her dignity. Manny saw it as jealousy, and was particularly indignant to Emma's reaction, telling her to support her like Manny had always supported Emma over the years. Also, J.T. Yorke began to crush on Manny and she seemed to feel the same way until Sully suddenly took an interest in her and asked her out. Manny then gets a new attitude, which Emma refuses to put up with Sully quickly became Manny's boyfriend, but she grew agitated with his inattentiveness. Although it wasn't witnessed on-screen, it became clear that Manny broke up with Sully when her focus resumed on Craig, who was dating Ashley Kerwin at the time. After a misunderstanding with Ashley led to a big fight and break up at Paige's sixteenth birthday party, Manny met Craig to console him. He took her back to his garage where they proceeded to have sex.
Craig kept up his relationship with Manny even after making up and getting back together with Ashley. One night, while trying to hook Emma up with a new boy named Chris, the two girls attended a rave. With Ashley out of town, Craig showed up, on Manny's invitation, and they proceeded to hook up again. Manny took Craig back to Emma's room in the private basement of her house. After leaving the rave alone, Emma discovered Manny and Craig making out on her bed. She kicked Craig out and refused to talk to Manny. The next day at school, the girls had a particularly ugly argument in which Manny called Emma "the prude princess" and Emma called Manny "the school slut."
Manny was losing friends left and right, but she continued to secretly date Craig. Over Christmas break, Manny and Craig met up in secret and she begged him to break up with Ashley for her but Craig said he couldn't. After talking to Caitlin Ryan, Craig realized he loved Manny and went to the ice arena to tell her he would break up with Ashley. When Craig went to Ashley's house she gave him a vintage guitar that belonged to her grandfather, so he didn't have the heart to break up with her. Manny was unaware of this, as Craig had told her he ended things with Ashley. Thinking they were history, Manny made a comment to Ashley about dating Craig. A bewildered and upset Ashley slapped Craig across the face and broke up with him while they were performing on stage in front of a large audience. Manny soon followed suit.
A nasty flu spread throughout Degrassi once school was back in session, and Manny appeared to come down with it. She felt sick and vomited several times. It soon became obvious, however, that Manny wasn't sick--she was pregnant. Not knowing who else to tell, she confided in Spike Nelson, Emma's mother, who had Emma when she was around Manny's age. Spike comforted her, and even Emma and Craig were supportive. Craig, it seemed, was maybe a little too supportive. His fantasies of raising a family drove Manny to the breaking point when she realized she wasn't ready to have a child. Her conservative Filipino family had previously brought her to see her cousin, who was sent to a convent in the Philippines when she had gotten pregnant. She decided to tell her mother that she was pregnant, and also that she wanted an abortion. Her mother was surprisingly supportive. However, Craig flew off the hinges, his dream of a family shattered. Manny's decision also further harmed her fragile relationship with Emma, who likened Manny's abortion to Spike getting an abortion. Concluding with MANNY IS PREGNANT!
Things only got worse when an angry Ashley found Craig and Manny with a baby names book and announced the scandalous pregnancy to the entire student body in the cafeteria. This heightened Manny's new reputation as the school slut.
Manny finished the school year depressed and, for the most part, anti-social. JT, who had been harboring feelings for her since the beginning of the year, attempted to date her, though to no avail. Eventually, however, the two attended the end of the school year dance together, and began dating.
[edit] Season 4
Of her original group of friends, only her relationship with Toby remained steady, with her comforting him following the shooting and the death of Toby's friend Rick, as well as patching up the friendship between him and JT. She even danced with him at a Degrassi function (though the latter may have been to make up for some of her poor behavior around that same time).
By the end of her sophomore year, Manny, still battling insecurity, broke it off with Spinner, even though he wanted desperately to stay with her. She had a flirtation with a new kid named Chester that essentially went nowhere but led her to realize that even after everything that happened with Craig she had to stay true to her feelings for Spinner, though she did make him promise never to hurt her. This relationship quickly ended after Manny learned of Spinner's involvement in the school shooting.
During summer, Manny played a major part in Kevin Smith's movie being shot at the school.
[edit] Season 5
Through all of her trouble, Manny and Craig seemed to be getting close after he protected her from Peter and sympathized for her current situation. During the epiosde Weddings Parties, Anything she got in a fight with Ellie Nash over Craig's feelings. The two shared a romantic kiss when he visited her at Emma's house where Manny was staying for the time being and proceeded to get back together.
With Emma's life going downhill, they both stopped eating(Emma for control, and Manny to lose weight for her audition). Manny has an amusing scene where is in the cafeteria looking at pizza saying "Please stop saying my name. Stop! Manny, Manny." Emma catches her in the hall eating pizza and Manny tries to tell her that it quelches audition stress. Emma takes her into the bathroom to throw it up, but Manny refuses and walks away. Manny quickly decided it was stupid, but she realized that Emma hadn't stopped. She and Peter (Emma's no longer secret boyfriend) tell Emma's parents and Emma becomes furious and tells Manny to leave, but then Emma falls to the floor and can't breathe. Later she is seen in the hospital with Emma who had a panic attack and tearfully tells her she needs to stop or she's gonna die and Emma tells her she'll try to beat this. Emma had developed anorexia.
As Craig leaves for his musical career, he becomes more attached to Ellie. When Manny calls to talk to him, he and Ellie are sitting around his garage chatting about nothing. When Joey comes to hand him the phone, he tells Joey to tell her they're studying. Manny senses some chemistry between Craig and Ellie, but soon drops her suspicions, as there are nothing between Craig and Ellie.
In the season finale, Darcy Edwards, Spinner's new girlfriend, is jealous of Manny and Spinner's past relationship because she believes that they still like each other (which they don't). The two get into a cat fight where Darcy calls Manny a slut.
[edit] Season 6
Season 6 begins with Manny trying to keep Emma from relapsing back into her anorexia. As the year progresses she is quickly becoming very popular and shedding her old reputation as the "school slut". After Darcy's jealousy of Manny and Spinner's past relationship led to a nasty fight between the two girls in the season five finale, they become friends. Darcy, the new Spirit Squad captain, invites Manny back on the squad as the team's choreographer and this year Emma has a new romantic dilemma but Manny sticks by her side this time, wanting to make this year free of "Emma Drama-rama". When a 15-year old new student named Mia Jones auditions for the squad, both Darcy and Manny are impressed with her. She is soon revealed to be a single mother. While Manny doesn't mind, Darcy becomes very judgmental towards her and despite her impressive skill, does not allow her to be on the squad due to her conservative religious beliefs. Manny won't let that decision stand, so she and Mia confront Darcy about her unfair decision. After the confrontation indirectly causes a huge fight between nearly everyone in the gym, Mia gives up to avoid any further problems. Manny would've quit as well had Mia not convinced her otherwise. Later in the episode, If You Leave, both Manny and Darcy are inviting Mia to join the Spirit Squad to help them win the cheering competition (possibly showing that Darcy was asking for forgiveness), but Mia turns down the offer.
Manny tries to get over her break-up with Craig, and uses Liberty's birthday as an excuse to throw a party. Emma thinks that only a few people will come, so she agrees to it. JT leaves the party to look for Liberty after having a fight with her, only to find Johnny DiMarco and Drake Lempky outside, as they had been thrown out because of Johnny's spraying Jay with beer. When J.T. sees them, he faked a laugh and told the Lakehurst students that they slayed him with their humor. Drake, who appeared to be drunk, said to J.T., "Oh yeah, mascot boy? Laugh at this", pulled out a switchblade, and stabbed J.T in the back. Johnny, shocked, replied to this by saying,"What the hell did you do?!" Drake and Johnny fled the scene. After being rushed to the hospital, he is pronounced dead. Manny is slowly going into a relationship with Damien, a boy she danced with at the party.
After Liberty finds J.T. stabbed in the back, everyone goes to the hospital to get him help. Manny is seen breaking down and blaming herself because the party was her idea. Sean tells her it's not her fault, but she still blames herself and when they learn that J.T. died, she breaks down worse than anyone else.
After the murder of JT, Manny's parents decide to reconcile with her after realizing that life was too precious and short to hold a grudge against their own child, and they want her to move back home, possibly because of what happened at Emma's house. That situation briefly created a problem for Emma, Sean, and the rest of the school. They all objected to Manny dating a boy that attended the same school as the boy who killed JT. At least for the time being, Emma and Manny are on good terms and still the best of friends.
[edit] Season 7
Manny learns that Peter and Darcy have become an item. Manny lets Darcy know that she is fine with the fact that her friend is dating one of her past enemies. When Manny convinces Darcy to go on a snowboarding trip with her, Darcy invites Peter. While at the resort, Jane tells Darcy and Manny about a party that is going to be held. Manny and Darcy decide to go. After Darcy insults Manny, by telling her that she has no morals or self-respect, Manny leaves Darcy at the party where she gets raped. Manny, thinking that her and Peter willingly had sex, tells Darcy that every girl is entitled to a secret. However, word soon spreads through the school. Then, the Friendship Club finds out and takes Darcy's abstinence ring away. After a bit, Darcy tells Manny that she did not have sex with Peter, but that it was rape, and that she has chlamydia. Manny then tells Darcy she has to tell somebody.
After Manny learns that Darcy was raped, Manny is there to help her and comfort her. One day during Spirit Squad practice, Manny notices Darcy isn't there. She decides to check the showers for her and finds Darcy fully clothed in the shower with her wrist cut open. Manny grabs a towel and tells Darcy to put pressure on it while she dials 911. At the hospital, Peter and Manny talk about how Peter wants to tell Darcy's parents, but Manny tells him not to because rape victims need to heal at their own pace. When Darcy's mother comes up to her and asks why her perfect daughter would try to kill herself, Manny keeps it a secret, knowing that Darcy needs to tell them in her own time. At the end of the premiere, Manny and Peter get Darcy's abstinence ring back for her and Manny tells her that her rape did not count as sex.
In We Got the Beat, Manny is turning 18 and her parents are throwing her a traditional Filipino party to celebrate her becoming an adult. Manny is angry that her parents, especially her father Joseph, won't let her make her own choices, such as pursuing a career in acting. When she accidentally causes some minor damage to her father's car - only the passenger's side headlight - she goes to Jay for help, and he comes through. With that, she enlists Jay's help in trying to make her parents call off the party. This backfires when Manny's parents love Jay despite the fact that he was expelled from school and is two years older than Manny. This is because Jay is doing well as a mechanic, and his boss is teaching him to run a business. At her debut, she decides to prove to her parents she is a good actress and pretends that she and Jay are dating and that she is going to become a maid instead of going to University. Her father gets mad at her, but Manny tells him she was acting which makes him realize she has a gift and decides to let her become an actress, but insists that she pursue an education. They both compromise when she proposes going on to college with a major in Theater but keeping science as a minor. Manny is happy and the episode ends with her and her father dancing. Her mother winds up dancing with Jay. Interestingly enough, Manny never said anything about her relationship with Jay being an act.
After beginning a relationship with Manny, Jay kisses Manny in front of her door after a date and her father catches them. As an excuse, Manny tells her father they were celebrating their engagement. The next day, Jay gives her a fake diamond ring, as if it were her engagement ring.
When Manny decides she wants to meet Jay's parents, Jay tells Manny his parents had been deported to Malta and that, since he was born in Canada, he decided to stay behind. Manny then realizes that Jay is taking their engagement seriously upon learning that her ring has a real diamond. At a school dance, Manny shows Jay tickets to Malta and tells him she really wants to meet his parents... until she finds out Jay lied about his parents living there. They start to argue and Manny wonders why he lied. Jay then discovers Manny doesn't have her ring on and he realizes she sold the ring to get plane tickets for Malta. He then tells Manny the ring was really special to him because it belonged to his mother, who died when he was little.
The day after, they run into each other while attempting to call the other. They decide to tell each other the truth, so Jay confesses the truth to Manny about what happened with his parents. After his dad got with a third wife, Jay felt like he chose her over him, so he made a scene at his dad's wedding and then lost touch. Manny and Jay decide they would always be honest with each other and reconcile.
While Jay is upset with Manny for selling his mother's ring, Manny attends an auction to try to sell the Malta tickets, but they end up buying them back. After Jay and Manny have a fight, Jay breaks into the pawn shop and steals back the ring. He then gives it to Manny the following day. While Manny is happy about this, she later learns that Jay stole the ring from the pawn shop. Manny later confronts Jay about this, and after an argument and the exchange of words, the couple separates.
Near graduation Manny receives a call from her agent offering her to play a starring role in West Drive. Excited to finally have a chance in stardom she accepts the role. After realizing that the time of the shooting will take at least 6 months, conflicting with her school time, she is forced to choose whether to pursue the role or start school. After a few encouraging words from her father knowing she'll make the right decision, she tears up her contract with Emma and is able to go to Smithdale after all.
After hearing that Liberty and Damien hook up during Senior Prom, Manny tells off Liberty not to tell anyone especially Emma until after graduation. When Toby finds out, everyone shortly does leaving Liberty friendless until she delivered her valedictorian speech. Her speech reminded everyone the importance of friendship and how all these years meant to her, making her reconcile with her friends.
[edit] Season 8
Manny ends up sharing a dorm with Liberty Van Zandt, Emma Nelson, and a guy named Kelly Ashoona at Smithdale University. She had a short crush on Kelly and so did Emma and they fought for him and till the realized he has a girlfriend named Gwyneth. Manny is involved in theater arts and is now seen doing a lot of yoga.
In Degrassi Goes Hollywood Manny is dating the Professor of her Theatre Arts class and the relationship is very control. She decides to audition for the New Jason Meuws movie coming out. She bombs the audition but later is give a second chance. So goes on a road trip with Jay her ex- boyfriend.
[edit] Season 9
In Close to Me Jane and Manny became friends and she is always teasing Jane about her friendship with Declan. She goes to Spinner's housewarming party and when she sees Declan flirting with Jane, she gives Jane a concerned look. All through the episode Manny gives boy advice to Jane, and some of the advice she gives are the reasons why Jane cheated on Spinner with Declan. Jane ends up kissing Declan in his huge, empty house.
[edit] Relationships
- Craig Manning
- First Relationship
- Start Up: "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" (307)
- Broke Up: "Holiday" (312)
- Reason: Manny finds out Craig didn't break up with Ashley as he said he had.
- Second Relationship
- Start Up: "Accidents Will Happen Part 1" (314)
- Broke Up: "Accidents Will Happen Part 2" (315)
- Reason: Manny gets an abortion against Craig's wishes when he was excited about having his own family
- Reason: Manny gets an abortion against Craig's wishes when he was excited about having his own family
- Third Relationship
- Start Up: "Weddings, Parties, Anything" (505)
- Broke Up: "What it Feels like to Be A Ghost Part 2" (610)
- Reason: Craig choose cocine over Manny.
- First Relationship
- Reason: Sully only used her because of her looks.
- Start Up: "Our House" (321)
- Broke Up: "Mercy Street" (404)
- Reason: Manny believes JT is too immature.
- Gavin 'Spinner' Mason
- Start Up: "Bark At The Moon" (413)
- Broke Up: "Eye of the Tiger" (416)
- Reason: Manny finds out Spinner was behind Jimmy's brutal attack in the school shooting.
- Mick
- Start Up: Sometime before"Degrassi Goes Hollywood"
- Broke Up: "Degrassi Goes Hollywood"
- Reason: He doesn't believe that Manny can act and is too controlling.
- Jay Hogart
- First Relationship
- Start Up: "We Got The Beat" (707)
- Broke Up: "Bust A Move Part 1" (713)
- Reason: Jay was too clingy.
- Second Relationship
- Start Up: "Bust A Move Part 2" (714)
- Broke Up: "Ladies' Night" (720)
- Reason: Jay goes back to his "bad ways" by stealing Manny's engagement ring from the pawn shop
- Third Relationship
- Start Up: "Degrassi Goes Hollywood"
- Reason: Manny realizes that Jay loves her and she still loves him.
- First Relationship
