Former Top Model-turned-actress, Eva Marcille (Tyra Hamilton) has a lot to celebrate in 2009. The actress has been given a promotion at work -- and she's about to take a walk down the aisle.

Marcille, with fiancé Lance Gross

Marcille and Gross have been dating since mid-2007 when the pair met on the set of the television show, Tyler Perry's House of Payne. Ironically, the pair's characters were also dating. Gross accompanied Marcille along the Red Carpet at last year's Daytime Emmys.

The couple is considering a summer 2010 wedding.

Meanwhile, Marcille's professional life is also on the upswing. The actress recently signed a long-term contract with The Young and the Restless. Marcille joined the cast of the top-rated CBS soap in June 2008, but made a storyline-dictated exit in August. The actress returned two months later. This week Marcille earned a nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series at the NAACP's Image Awards.

Marcille rose to fame in 2004 as the winner of the third cycle of the reality series America's Next Top Model. Marcille, then known as Eva Pigford, had worked in an Atlanta department star before the show thrust her into the spotlight.