Model And Actress Wondrea Gilmore Dead At 36

Some people walk into a room and immediately change the energy. Wondrea Gilmore was one of those people.

Beautiful, brilliant, funny, stylish and full of life, Wondrea had a presence that was impossible to ignore. Yes, she was gorgeous. She was fine AF. She worked the camera and could command a runway. But anybody who truly knew Wondrea knows that her greatest gift was bigger than her physical beauty.

It was her light. Her laugh. Her confidence. Her warmth. Her personality. The way she connected with people and made them feel like they had known her forever.

Wondrea built an impressive career as a plus-size model and actress, carving out space for herself in industries that have not always celebrated women who looked like her: curvy, highly melanated, confident Black women who refused to make themselves smaller.

And Wondrea never made herself small. Honestly, if Wondrea knew nothing else, she knew she was a big deal. She knew she was necessary because her community and her peers reminded her of that regularly.

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She graced the pages of publications including EBONY, Essence, Cosmopolitan, PLUS Model Magazine, OMIGAWD Magazine and Kontrol Magazine. She also worked with nationally recognized brands including Fashion Nova, Ashley Stewart, SKIMS, Fashion to Figure and Curverra, building a career that made space for curvy Black women to see themselves reflected in fashion and media.

Wondrea’s talents stretched far beyond modeling. She was steadily building her acting résumé, appearing in projects including Pretty For A Big Gurl, Turf, Shuttered Secrets, Deceptive Touch and STARZ’s BMF. She used every opportunity show the world another side of a woman who was constantly growing,…