HOLLYWOOD -- Yaya DaCosta was taught to put her best foot forward.

"Both my parents are educators. My siblings and I always had to get good grades no matter what outside interests we had," says DaCosta, 23, who makes her film debut in Take the Lead.

She plays an inner-city high school student from a one-parent family who renews her passion for learning and life through dance.

"When I was young, I took dancing, acting and violin but it was acting that thrilled me the most. It's what I really wanted to do with my life."

DaCosta put her dream in order to master in African Studies at Brown University.

In 2004, during her final semester, DaCosta competed on the third season of America's Next Top Model.

She placed second with Eva Pigford emerging the winner.

DaCosta was quickly signed by Ford Modelling and won the role of Lahrette in Take the Lead.

"It was my roommates who watched America's Next Top Model religiously. It was their idea for me to compete."

The show suggested there was as much catfighting among the contestants as there was strutting on the catwalks.

"Reality TV is not what it seems. There wasn't that much hostility. It's the image they wanted to send out," insists DaCosta, who's grateful for the modelling career the reality TV show brought her.

"Modelling is a nice way to support my acting career and to help pay off my student loans, but it's definitely not my priority."

DaCosta made this clear immediately when she refused to attend the press day to announce the winner.

"They had scheduled it for the day before my graduation. I told them it was impossible so they rescheduled the press day for the day after my graduation."

DaCosta insists her stint on America's Next Top Model had nothing to do with her being cast in Take the Lead.

"The director Liz Friedlander had no idea who I was when I auditioned for her. I got the role on my merits not on any bit of celebrity the TV show had given me. I didn't just walk in a room and get cast. I had to audition three times.

"I was the last person to be cast for Take the Lead. I think it was all my dance training that gave me the edge over the other girls who auditioned."

Though set in New York, Take the Lead was filmed in Toronto last year.

"All of us actors who play Antonio Banderas' students really bonded. We went out almost every night to a club called Lobby, where we'd practise the dance steps we were learning for the movie."