Soto was born Miriam Soto in Brooklyn, New York, where her parents moved to from Puerto Rico in the 1950s. Her parents relocated to Northampton, Massachusetts when she was still just a child. Soto's family was one of the few Puerto Rican families that resided in her neighborhood. She was raised and educated there, but she felt that people were prejudiced against her and she became a loner.

Soto landed her first modeling job in 1982, when she was fifteen years old. In 1985, she tried to sign up with the Ford modeling agency, but was rejected because she looked "too" Latina. Soto then went and signed with Click Model Management and headed for Europe. She established herself as one of the top models of the 1980s and was very busy modeling in Italy and France. She appeared on the covers Read more...

In 1988, when Soto returned to the United States, she auditioned and landed the role of India in her feature debut, Spike of Bensonhurst, a comedy which starred Sasha Mitchell and Ernest Borgnine. In 1989, she was cast as Lupe Lamora, in the James Bond movie Licence to Kill starring Timothy Dalton and as Maria Rivera in The Mambo Kings.

Soto has participated in more than 20 movies, among which Read more...