Michelle Rodriguez

Views: 956

Mayte Michelle Rodriguez (born July 12, 1978), is an American actress, screenwriter, and DJ.

Her breakout role was as a troubled boxer in the independent film Girlfight (2000), which was met with critical acclaim and earned her several awards, including the Independent Spirit Award[6] and Gotham Award for Best Debut Performance. The following year, she starred as Letty Ortiz in the blockbuster film The Fast and the Furious (2001), reprising her role in its sequels Fast & Furious (2009), Fast & Furious 6 (2013), and Furious 7 (2015). During her career, Rodriguez has played tough, independent women in a number of successful action films, such as Blue Crush, S.W.A.T., Battle: Los Angeles, and Avatar, She is also known for her roles as Shé in the action comedy films Machete and Machete Kills, and Rain Ocampo in the science fiction films Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Retribution.

Rodriguez also branched into television, playing Ana Lucia Cortez in the second season of the television series Lost as part of the main cast before making numerous guest appearances before the series ended. She has also done numerous voice work in video games such as Call of Duty and Halo, and lent her voice for the 3D animated film Turbo and the television series IGPX. With her films grossing over $5 billion (U.S.) collectively, a 2013 Entertainment Weekly article described Rodriguez as “arguably the most iconic actress in the action genre, as well as one of the most visible Latinas in Hollywood”.Having run across an ad for an open casting call and attending her first audition, Rodriguez beat 350 other applicants to win her first role in the low-budget 2000 independent film Girlfight. With her performance as Diana Guzman, a troubled teen who decides to channel her aggression by training to become a boxer, Rodriguez accumulated several awards and nominations for the role in independent circles, including major acting accolades from the National Board of Review, Deauville Film Festival, Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards, Las Vegas Film Critics Sierra Awards, and many others. The film itself took home a top prize at the Sundance and won Award of the Youth at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1999, she auditioned for a role in Sisqó’s hit music video, “Thong Song”. In 2002, she had a cameo appearance in Ja Rule’s music video for his song “Always On Time”.

Rodriguez has had notable roles in other successful movies, including Letty Ortiz in The Fast and the Furious (2001) and Rain Ocampo in Resident Evil (2002). She also appeared in Blue Crush and S.W.A.T.. In 2004, Rodriguez lent her voice to the video game Halo 2, playing a Marine. She also provided the voice of Liz Ricarro in the Cartoon Network series IGPX. From 2005 to 2006, she played tough cop Ana Lucia Cortez on the television series Lost during the show’s second season (the character’s first appearance was a flashback during the first season’s finale, “Exodus: Part 1”), and returned for a cameo in the second episode of the show’s fifth season, “The Lie”, in 2009. She returned again in the penultimate episode of the series, “What They Died For”, in 2010. In 2006, Rodriguez was featured in her own episode of G4’s show Icons. In 2008, Rodriguez appeared in Battle in Seattle. In 2009, she appeared in Fast & Furious, the fourth installment of the The Fast and the Furious film series. Later that year, Rodriguez starred in James Cameron’s high-budget sci-fi adventure film Avatar, which became the highest-grossing film in history and Rodriguez’s most successful film to date. She has expressed interest in returning for the film’s two sequels. In 2009, Rodriguez also starred in Trópico de Sangre, an independent film based on the Dominican Republic’s historic Mirabal sisters. In 2010, Rodriguez appeared in Robert Rodriguez’s Machete. The film received mostly positive reviews and earned US$44 million at the box office. In 2011, she appeared with Aaron Eckhart in the science fiction film Battle: Los Angeles which grossed over US$200 million in the worldwide box office. In 2012, she returned to play the good clone and bad clone of Rain Ocampo in Resident Evil: Retribution. In 2013, she reprised her role as Letty Ortiz in Fast & Furious 6. In the same year, Rodriguez appeared in Robert Rodriguez’s film Machete Kills.

Leave a Reply