Gina Rodriguez

Rodriguez was born on July 30, 1984, in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest daughter of Puerto Rican parents, Magali and Gino Rodriguez. Her father was a boxing referee. She has an older brother and two sisters. She was raised in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood on Chicago's Northwest Side. At the age of seven, Rodriguez performed at the salsa dance company Fantasia Juvenil. At the age of 16, she was among thirteen teenagers to be accepted into Columbia University's Theatrical Collaboration. She attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She portrayed Frida Kahlo in the world premiere of Casa Blue in the UK, and in the play called The Last Moments in the Life of Frida Kahlo at the American Stage Theatre. ==Career==

s Rodriguez made her screen debut appearing in an episode of Law & Order in 2004. She later has appeared on Eleventh Hour, Army Wives and The Mentalist. On October 19, 2011, Rodriguez landed the recurring role, Beverly, in the soap opera series The Bold and the Beautiful. She received a role in the musical film Go for It!, for which she received a 2011 Imagen Awards nomination. She also was the recipient of the Best Actor Award at the First Run Film Festival in New York. On June 9, 2013, Gina won the Inaugural Lupe Award. On April 16, 2013, during an interview, she revealed she was offered a role in the Lifetime television series Devious Maids, but turned it down. On October 16, 2013, she joined the cast of the film Sleeping With The Fishes. On February 27, 2014, Entertainment Weekly announced that Rodriguez would play the titular role of Jane Villanueva in Jane the Virgin, for which she went on to win a Golden Globe Award. On June 4, 2014, Rodriguez joined the cast of the drama film Sticky Notes. In August 2015, she co-hosted the 2015 Teen Choice Awards with Ludacris and Josh Peck. She voiced Mary in the animated film The Star, which was released in November 2017, as well as Una in Blue Sky Studios' Ferdinand a month later and played Anya in the science fiction thriller film Annihilation, opposite Natalie Portman. She also voices Carmen Sandiego in the Netflix animated series Carmen Sandiego which premiered on January 18, 2019. In March 2018, Netflix announced that they had acquired the live-action film rights for Carmen Sandiego and that Rodriguez would star as Sandiego in the film. Rodriguez owns the production company I Can & I Will Productions. She worked on projects at CBS and The CW centered around the Latino community. She served as a producer and starred in the 2019 Netflix romantic comedy film Someone Great. In 2019, Rodriguez starred as the title character in the action thriller film Miss Bala. In the same year, it was announced that Rodriguez was cast in the upcoming Netflix science fiction thriller Awake. She also voiced the role of Velma Dinkley in the animated adventure film Scoob!. Rodriguez served as the executive producer for the Disney+ show Diary of a Future President, where she also starred as the title character as an adult. She was nominated for the Children's and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performance for the show's second season. In 2024, Rodriguez was announced as one of the co-hosts (along with Shaquille O'Neal) of the ABC game show Lucky 13. The series premiered on July 18, 2024. ==Personal life ==

In an interview, Rodriguez revealed that she was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease, a thyroid condition, at the age of 19. In a 2014 interview, she said, "I grew up Catholic. I have Jewish in my family and I attend a Christian church in Hollywood. I am basically all over the place." In 2016, Rodriguez began dating actor and mixed martial arts fighter Joe LoCicero, whom she met on the set of Jane the Virgin. They were engaged in August 2018 and were married on May 4, 2019. She gave birth to their son in March 2023. On July 12, 2025, Rodriguez and LoCicero announced that they are expecting their second child together, a baby girl. On October 15, 2019, Rodriguez posted an apology to Instagram for posting a since-deleted video of herself saying the "N word while singing along to "Ready or Not" by the Fugees, garnering widespread public backlash. Within hours, she posted a second apology on the platform, stating: "The word I sang carries…a legacy of hurt and pain that I cannot even imagine…I feel so deeply protective and responsible to the community of color but I have let this community down. I have some serious learning and growing to do and I am so deeply sorry for the pain that I have caused."{{Cite web |first=Sophie |last=Lewis |title=Gina Rodriguez apologizes for singing n-word on Instagram ==Philanthropy==

Rodriguez has been involved with various charities and philanthropic efforts, made possible by her rising visibility as a film and television actress. In 2015, she became involved in Custom Ink and Naja Lingerie, both of which Rodriguez has stated have a special connection to her life and experiences. '' On March 16, 2015, she was announced as a member of the board of directors of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), the largest non-profit organization in the U.S. that supports Hispanic American higher education. Because attaining an education was the biggest priority in Rodriguez's household, coupled with her determination to work towards a degree, she was able to work towards receiving a HSF scholarship. Later in 2015, PACER's (The Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights) National Bullying Prevention Center teamed up with Custom Ink and enlisted the help of various celebrities, Rodriguez among them, to raise money for their fifth annual "Be Good to Each Other Campaign". Rodriguez, in designing a celebri-tee which featured the phrase "Kindness Is Always In Style" in cursive print, took a stand for kindness, acceptance, and inclusion in support of bullying prevention, and stated that her parents always taught [her] the power of thinking positively and treating others with respect. She also hopes that through the Be Good to Each Other Campaign, such a message could be continued to be spread to younger generations. In 2016, Rodriguez was named to Oprah's SuperSoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders. In 2017, Rodriguez, among several other artists, sang on the single "Almost Like Praying". Sparked by Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of Broadway's Hamilton, all proceeds from the song benefited those affected by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. ==Filmography==

Film Television Directing ==Awards and nominations==