“Lopez vs Lopez” tiny dog actor was found on the streets before stardom

A wags to riches story.

Before canine star Noelle lit up the small screen as Churro on Lopez vs Lopez, she was just another dog roaming the streets of Los Angeles.

The dog’s owner Jubel Chen works as an animal trainer for Guin’s Movie Menagerie, and told PEOPLE that she was handed the tiny pup during a shoot in downtown Los Angeles around Christmas 2017. "[Someone] asked, 'Is this one of your dogs?' because we were doing a shoot down there, and we said, 'No,' but we'd take her and see if we could find her people,” she explained.

Scanning Noelle for an identifying microchip and putting up posters didn’t reveal the dog’s owner, so Chen adopted her herself. The new owner spent six months socializing and training Noelle to gauge her interest in showbusiness. "She took a little bit because she was kind of skittish,” Chen said. “She was a little worried about things. She's a little dog, so it's always a little more intimidating for little dogs because everything's bigger than you.”

After appearing in commercials and TV shows like Modern Family, Noelle now has a prominent role as the family dog Noelle on Lopez vs Lopez. Chen said the dog is always excited to see her costars on set, including George Lopez and Mayan Lopez. "She likes to go there," Chen explained. "We get there, and I take her out of the car, and she's the first one at the stage door; she leads me to the stage door. I think she likes everybody saying hi to her. She gets to be the center of attention."

Noelle now owns her star status on the set of Lopez vs Lopez. "When she goes to set, she is a little diva," Chen said. "She'll walk onto set and wag her tail like she owns the place, and then people come and pet her, and she acknowledges them without acknowledging them.”

Chen also explained that the cast and crew on set try not to surprise Noelle with any unexpected behavior. "We protect her as much as we can so that she understands that everything is okay because she doesn't know that all of this isn't real. We make sure we rehearse and rehearse," Chen said. "If someone's going to come running in a room, or scream, or dance around and be silly, we like to be aware of that, so we know it's going to happen, and then we show her that it's going to happen.”

Lopez vs Lopez airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• Messi, the handsome Anatomy of a Fall dog, has his own seat at the Oscars

• Mark Wahlberg 'tried to bribe' trainer to adopt his dog costar: 'I took a shot'

• The best dogs from TV and movies
  

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.