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Famous Like Me > Actress > M > Idina Menzel

Profile of Idina Menzel on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Idina Menzel  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 30th May 1971
   
Place of Birth: Queens, New York, USA
   
Profession: Actress
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Idina Menzel.


Idina Menzel (born Adena Mentzel on May 30, 1971 in Queens, New York) is a Jewish-American actress, singer and songwriter.

From high school and throughout college, Menzel was often playing and singing at weddings. Her professional life changed greatly when she auditioned for a Broadway rock musical based upon Puccini's La Boheme. That show, the late Jonathan Larson's Rent, was Menzel's Broadway debut. For her performance as Maureen Johnson in the original cast of the 1996 musical she received a Tony nomination in the Best Featured Actress in a Musical category.

Following the success of Rent, she originated the role of Dorothy in Summer of ’42 at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, starred as Sheila in the Broadway Encores! Production of Hair and appeared on Broadway as Amneris in Aida. Menzel earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for her performance as Kate in the Manhattan Theatre Club's 2000 off-Broadway production of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party. Her other off-Broadway credits include Rent and The Vagina Monologues.

Idina Menzel as Elphaba, her breakthrough role in "Wicked".

What is perhaps the most notable work of Menzel's thus far was her appearance on Broadway in the critically-acclaimed musical Stephen Schwartz Wicked, based upon the popular 1995 Gregory Maguire novel, for which she received the 2004 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.

Menzel is currently appearing on Broadway in See What I Wanna See, a controversial new Michael John LaChiusa-penned musical whose run is set to end in December 2005.

In film, she has appeared in Summer of Sam, Just a Kiss, Kissing Jessica Stein, Tollbooth, Water, Ask the Dust, and Rent. In the latter film, Menzel reprised her on-stage role, Maureen Johnson. In addition to Menzel, the Chris Columbus-directed film features original cast members Taye Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jesse L. Martin, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, all in their original roles, as well as newcomers Tracie Thoms and Rosario Dawson. She also made an appearance in the movie Camp in which legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim also made an cameo.

Her television work consists mostly of guest spots on such programs as Rescue Me, Kevin Hill, and the animated series Hercules.

Menzel performed at the 1998 Lilith Fair summer concert festival, and continues to write and perform original music. She has toured extensively and frequently performs in various venues throughout New York City. She produced and released her debut album, Still I Can’t Be Still, released on Hollywood Records in 1998. Her sophomore album, Here, was released by Zel Records in 2004. Menzel has contributed to soundtracks, including those for film The Other Sister and the wildly popular ABC television dramedy Desperate Housewives.

The legendary Ray Charles invited Menzel to be among an elite group of his favorite contemporary artists to duet with him on one of the tracks of Charles' album Genius and Friends. The tracks were produced in 1998 but were never produced, and it was one of his death wishes that the album be made, and in 2005 it was.

Menzel has appeared on the cast recordings of Rent and Wicked, two of the best-selling cast recordings, as well as the recording of Lippa's The Wild Party and the soundtrack of the Rent film.

Menzel holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She is married to fellow stage, television and film performer and Rent, The Wild Party co-star Taye Diggs.

Menzel recently signed a record deal with Warner Brothers Records and will begin recording when her run of See What I Wanna See is over.


This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Idina Menzel