Maria Lopez, played by Samantha Becker (a.k.a Samantha Estaban)

I loved the character of Maria Lopez, played by Samantha Becker (a.k.a Samantha Estaban). She was definitely my favorite character of the New Class. I myself grew up on the original Saved By the Bell series and had my doubts when the New Class came about (as most purists of the original series did). And I have to admit, with all the character changes in the first couple of sesons, I wasn't too happy with this new series at first. But then Samantha Becker came aboard. She is so gorgeous, and her character is a sexy, spunky Latina--something this series definitely needed. Yes, I liked Kelly Kapowski from the original series, but after a while, I grew tired of these typical Californian white girl-characters with their cheerleading and shopping malls (and I'm Caucasian). What this new series needed was some Latina magic, and Samantha Becker gave us just that. With the exception of her small role in "Training Day," I haven't seen her in anything else, and that's a shame because she's spectacular! I wish she would do more TV shows and/or films.