Léa Navarro

"Maybe I didn't see it at the time, but the Mirror taught both of us a lesson that I know would stick for the rest of our lives and that there's more to feelings than 'hating' someone." - **Léa**'s closing narration in Beyond Worlds: Azul

## **OFFICIAL BIO**

*"Born and raised in the Philippines, **Léa Navarro** believes in the concept of a parallel universe even if she doesn't actually know what great lengths await her. Oftentimes a little skeptical, but knows there's always an answer to every problem. If there isn't, then she will be there to solve it." - Character dossier*

## Biographical Information

### Name

Maxine Mayari Akamine Buenavista (birth name), Julia Akamine Navarro (BW), Julianna A. Navarro (Azul)

### Other Name(s)

Leigh, Tattletale (by Julian), Miss Congeniality (by Hiro), Silver Medal (by Kenji), Maya (by Martín)

### Age

16 - 17 (Beyond Worlds), 17 (Azul & Amarillo)

### Home

Manila, Philippines (formerly), Pasadena California

## Relationships

### Family

Martín Buenavista (father), Lianne Akamine (mother), Oliver Buenavista (younger half-brother; BW), Red Ordonia (younger half-sister; Azul & Amarillo), Julius Navarro (step-father), Julian Navarro (step-brother)

### Friends

Hiro Hamada, Cameron Mendes, Red Ordonia, Kenji Katagiri, Oliver, Tadashi Hamada, Big Hero 6

### Enemies

Hiro Hamada (formerly), Kenji Katagiri (formerly), Robert Callaghan (Beyond Worlds), Martín Buenavista (Azul, formerly), Lia (Azul)

### Love Interest(s)

Hiro Hamada (eventual boyfriend), Kenji Katagiri (admirer)

## Production Information

### Actor

Kath Aguinaldo

**Julia A. Navarro** (**Julianna A. Navarro** in the reboot), nicknamed as **Léa**, is the 17-year-old main female protagonist of both Beyond Worlds and its reboot's first installment, Beyond Worlds: Azul. She's the daughter of **Lianne Akamine** and becomes the step-daughter of **Julius Navarro** when her mother remarries, also becoming Julian's step-sister. She attends Caltech as a third-year student along with her best friends, Cameron Mendes and Red Ordonia. Kenji Katagiri, her academic rival, tries to challenge her in a lot of things, arguably bringing out the best in Léa's performances- Kenji would later then be an actual love interest of hers, this time rivaling Hiro Hamada's affections for Léa.

**Kath Aguinaldo** is the inspiration for Léa, along with her looks. Aguinaldo provided the voice for Léa in the reels and animatics.

## **EARLY LIFE**

#### **Original**

Born on July 9th, 2004, Léa (born **Maxine Mayari "Maya" A. Buenavista**) was born to Martín Buenavista and **Lianne Akamine**, though at age 2, she was taken by her father and taught her how to be a criminal. When Maya was 6, Martín was then eventually caught by a police officer, Julius Navarro, when he was stealing- with Julius taking Maya back to Lianne and raised her. Maya then developed hatred over her father because of what he did. Years later, Lianne remarries to Julius who has a son named Julian. Maya legally changes her name from Mayari to her current name, Léa, at age 14- before 8th grade, and before Red and Cameron even knew her.

Léa meets one of her best friends, Red Ordonia, in 8th grade, partnering up with her in competing in badminton competitions together and winning. Red tells Léa about her missing father, and Léa volunteers to help by making Julian help her trespass on the Philippines' major precinct and hacking to get into the police's confidential files. Julian takes the fall when they get caught, making him obtain a criminal record for his actions. After getting caught, Léa and her family moves to Pasadena, California and promises Red she'd find another way to get her father back, not knowing that Red will be moving with them. Upon enrolling in Caltech, both Léa and Red meet the third member of their future trio, Cameron Mendes.

#### **Reboot**

Léa was kidnapped by her father when she was only a few months old when he was found guilty of cheating on his wife. Lianne got full custody of Léa, and this seemed to be the cause of the kidnapping. Martín raised Léa and bribed her with toys that he made as a robotics engineer to make her stay with him- one of which is Copper. When Léa was 7, she was found by Julius Navarro and met Lianne when he took Léa back to her after Martín was arrested. In 8th grade, when Léa was 14 years-old, she was approved to change her name to cut ties with her criminal father. Lianne married Julius and they- along with Léa and Julian- moved to California. There, Léa and Red met Cameron and Kenji.

## **PERSONALITY**

Known to be snobby and sarcastic, Léa has her own way of handling any stressful and pressuring situation; always behaving passive-aggressively. Her pride is high up since she also finds it hard admitting to people about what she feels toward something, as she's used to hide her actual feelings to herself. Sometimes it would even take hours or even days for Léa to apologize, although she does try to be the better person. She admits she can be a stuck-up and a judgemental person, judging people even if she haven't met them yet- like what happens with Hiro when they first meet in the original Beyond Worlds.

Although this is the case, Léa stays loving to her family and loyal to her friends, having a close knit relationship with them. She especially loves her mother the most, as they were there for each other when her father was in jail. Similarly, Léa has lost all respect to her father and wouldn't want to be his daughter in any way, even going as far as renaming herself close to her step-father and step-brother's names. Léa is more than willing to fix ties with people she's been mean to, though to an extent.

## **PHYSICAL APPEARANCE**

#### **BEYOND WORLDS**

Léa has wavy dark brown-colored hair that reaches her shoulders. When she lets her hair down, it's parted to the right side of her head and she has short fringes. Her eyes are blue in color. Léa has a slender body figure, and her height is recorded to be around 5'2".

She usually wears layered clothing; one of which is her favorite outfit consisting of a white hoodie shirt with black hems and drawstrings tucked into black denim jeans, and white sneakers. Léa's second outfit is a turquoise colored hoodie sweatshirt with silver drawstrings, and she wears black denim shorts and white sneakers to match. Her hair is let down, and she seems to have a ribbon tied at the back of the crown of her head.

For the second season her third outfit consists of a a carnation colored shirt, and Léa now wears Hiro's navy blue jacket. She still wears the same denim shorts and sneakers. She did not get a haircut, though her hair seemed to be shorter. On her 17th birthday, she mentions she's wearing her mother's bridesmaid dress that was redesigned, and her hair is cut even shorter, stopping just above her shoulders.

#### **AZUL**

Léa's hair and skin tone is noticeably darker than her original art, and her eyes also appear to be a darker shade of blue. She also wears a pair of glasses throughout the upcoming stories. She's still wearing the same clothes she was wearing in the original, though she adds her Caltech varsity jacket on top of her black and white hoodie. Her hair is tied into pigtails. Léa wears a purple glittered-jacket with a Cancer constellation on the left side, and a number 9 is around her left sleeve. Its neckline is magenta in color, and it has a star-shaped snap button. Underneath her jacket is a light gray tube top with a black lining on the top. She's also described to be wearing black jeans and black boots. Unlike in the original though, her hair was not cut short.

## **GALLERY**

BW Season 1Léa with Hiro (BW S1)BW Season 2Léa with Hiro and RedAzulAmarilloAmarillo epilogue
## **CHANGES IN THE REBOOT**

* Léa's hair didn't change lengths, and her hair and skin complexion are darker. This is because Léa looks slightly of Caucasian or American descent- especially that she has blue eyes- even though she's part Filipino.
* There wasn't a planetarium that Léa should host in.
	+ Similarly, Professor Katie Bouman, Léa's favorite professor, has no prominent role in Azul, nor does she exist (or even mentioned at one point).
* She was portrayed as much more mature in the reboot, and she wasn't also projected as a perfect protagonist with a "hanker sore" to Hiro and Kenji.

## **TRIVIAS**

* Her name Léa is pronounced as 'LAY-ah', as highlighted by the acute accented 'E'. Because many people read it as 'LEE-ah', she decided to spell her name that way.
	+ The pronunciation problem with Léa's name is a nod to her voice actress, **Kath Aguinaldo**, where she has to correct people everytime they say her second name 'Majella' wrong, saying "It's pronounced as 'Mayella' with a 'j'."
	+ "Léa" is the anagram of "Yella", one of Aguinaldo's nicknames.
* Her birth name, "Mayari", is a lunar goddess in the Philippine Mythology, which also matches Léa's actual interest and ambition as an astrophysicist. In the reboot, Léa explained that her name was picked by her father, saying, "You told me that the first time you held me, it was at night and the moonlight was shining down on my face".
	+ Léa and Hiro are the only characters in the series to have their names match their interest and occupation.
* Because her father picked her names for her, it's known that Léa changed her name as her way of cutting her ties with him, even dropping her actual last name, "Buenavista", and changing it to "Navarro".
	+ Léa and Martín are the only characters in Azul to have accented letters in their names. This fact changes when Amarillo introduces new characters from Encanto; Félix and Agustín Madrigal, and Mariano Guzmán.
* As a nod to her actress, Léa's favorite color is turquoise. The said color is the assigned color for Léa, while Hiro's color is navy blue.
* Léa's first appearance isn't in Beyond Worlds as she is first seen in a demo reel of **Agent X**, in which her name is **Megan Bauer** (although they share the same trait as being skilled in hacking and programming).
	+ Léa's outfits are actually Kath Aguinaldo's clothes when Aguinaldo was shooting for Agent X's demo reel as Megan Bauer (except for the Caltech letterman jacket).
		- Coincidentally in the original Beyond Worlds' 8th chapter, Hiro and Léa are wearing their school's clothing; the SFIT sweatshirt and Caltech varsity jacket respectively.
* Léa is now illustrated and described to own a pair of glasses in the reboot, making her the third character in the series to be wearing a pair, behind Kenji Katagiri and Julian Navarro, and she comes before Mirabel and Agustín Madrigal. It's unknown whether Léa's are prescribed, though.
	+ Since Aguinaldo doesn't wear prescribed glasses, it's safe to assume Léa's aren't either and that the glasses may only be for ultraviolet light.
* A teaser of Léa's first outfit in Beyond Worlds: Amarillo is as the same as the one Aguinaldo drew for fun, down to the microbot necklace that Hiro would give her at some point.
* Léa's dislocated shoulder is on her right as hinted by Hiro- with a bandaged hand- when he tried to shake hers.