Coconut Grove Boy is now a Hollywood Boy

Yellow Brand Clothing Shoot By Gil Bitton

Many of you know Pablo Hernandez, the owner of Allure Salon on Main Highway. He became more well known a couple of years ago when he and the salon were featured on the Bravo tv show Tabath's Salon Takeover. And now, due to the exposure that Tabatha gave Pablo, he is moving up in Hollywood circles. It almost all feels so out of character for him because he is a very quiet person, very low key; not what you would expect from a model or actor moving on up in Hollywood.

I remember the time we needed a sound system for an event in Coconut Grove and he had one he was using for one of his charity cut-a-thons at the salon that weekend. I asked him if we could borrow it and of course he said we could. And rather than tell me to come over and get it, he lugged the big thing down to the event. It was funny seeing the little small-framed guy coming down the block with the large speaker system. But he's humble like that.

At his Halloween party last year, he was the one behind the bar doing the bartending! He hasn't learned to be a super model yet.

Pablo has been modeling for the past year, a lot of it in Los Angeles, and he is currently a featured star on a tv show called "Hollywood Boys," which has filmed a pilot, but is not on the air yet.

Pablo says, "I've always dreamed of being an actor, but never thought that it was a realistic goal until I was on 'Tabatha's Salon Takeover.' I thought to myself, 'Wow, if I can have fans for doing absolutely nothing, then I sure as hell can have fans for being a talented actor.' I want to show people that I'm not some reality star and that I actually have talent."


Photography by Kemuel Valdes

When Tabatha was filming here in Coconut Grove for about a week, Pablo would call or text me all excited, to tell me about it, but I never dreamed it would have such a huge impact. I never went over to watch, not thinking much about it, but boy, was I wrong. The whole concept of celebrity is quite interesting because we had written about Pablo and the salon over the years and the night that the Tabatha show first aired, our stat counter went through the roof. People were doing searches for Pablo Hernandez and the Grapevine was coming up with the stories and photos that we had run in the past. And every time the show is rerun, the same thing happens, people search for Pablo on the internet.

In a week, Pablo is off to California again to do an underwear fashion show for Papi underwear at the Beverly Center in LA. And while there, he will be in a music video for Latin pop singer, Violeta Martin, being filmed at the House of Blues and he'll be doing another modeling shoot for photograher Scott Hoover.

"Hollywood Boys," is a dramatic tv series by writer/creator Donald Ammer and award winning producer/director Charlie Vaughn ("Vampire Boys, Flight to Sinai). It's a cross between Entourage and Desperate Housewives. Pablo plays Angel Diaz.

Hollywood Boys was originally a novel, but the author could not stop writing, he kept coming up with storylines, so it ended up being a scripted series. It is being shopped around to the networks and it is believed that HBO or one of the cable networks will pick up the show.

I asked Pablo if that is it for him in Coconut Grove and South Florida, will he now become a "real" Hollywood Boy? He said, "I am not planning on moving to Los Angeles anytime soon. If the show gets picked up, then I will be there for about 6-8 weeks. I love Miami and Allure too much to let go just yet. In the meantime, I have a wonderful team of stylists and great management staff running the salon while I'm out. They're all egging me on to make it in Hollywood. They're motivation inspires me and has helped get me this far. I am grateful for their support as well as the support of our salon clients. They're all Team Pablo!" -- So are we.

More on Hollywood Boys here.