Zanjoe Marudo Coverboy ng Batangas

Zanjoe Marudo

“I COULD see myself in Richard Gomez,” declared Zanzoe Marudo, the 22-year-old model for Bench’s underwear line.

Like Richard, Zanzoe is brooding, quiet and sexy. With a six-pack to die for in a six-foot frame, he is the perfect poster boy.

But Zanzoe does not exude sex only. At best, he is a regular guy with big dreams.

“I come from a middle income family,” he said. “My dad is a chef in New Jersey. My mom is a housewife and lives here. We are six children. I am the third. My three youngest siblings are now in the US. They were the only ones who could be petitioned by my Dad because they were still underage at that time.”

In high school, Zanjoe was a member of his school’s basketball varsity team. Basketball, he said, paid for his tuition fee.

He is also into badminton, basketball and wake boarding.

Zanzoe got into modeling after high school to earn his own money. He has since become one of Cosmo Magazine’s Top 10 Bachelors and Metro Calendar 2006.

“I would like to have a showbiz career,” he admitted. “I’d like to learn to act and to sing. But no, I would not go for bold roles.”

Just like the young Richard Gomez, whose first movie break was a comic character, Islaw, Zanzoe has already been considered by ABS-CBN for the role of Kapitan Inggo, in an upcoming teleserye.