Josefina Scaglione

Josefina Scaglione is an Argentine actress and singer born on September 5, 1987, in Trelew, Argentina, who was raised in Rosario, Santa Fe. She is best known for originating the role of Maria in the 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story.

Scaglione developed an interest in performing during childhood and, while still in high school, received a scholarship to attend a summer arts program at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduating, she relocated to Buenos Aires, where she built her early career in musical theatre. Her Buenos Aires credits include Cinderella and the role of Amber Von Tussle in Hairspray.

Her path to Broadway began in 2008, when director Arthur Laurents was searching for an actress to play Maria in his revival of West Side Story and had been unable to find a suitable candidate in the United States. Contacts in Buenos Aires directed him to a YouTube clip of Scaglione performing Ástor Piazzolla's Libertango, prompting Laurents to bring her to New York City to audition. She was cast immediately. Before her Broadway debut, Scaglione performed the role at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. She then opened on Broadway at the Palace Theatre on March 19, 2009.

For her performance as Maria, Scaglione received a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, making her the first actress portraying Maria to receive a nomination in the Lead Actress category. Previous performers in the role — Carol Lawrence in the original 1957 production and Josie de Guzman in the 1980 revival — had each been nominated in the Featured Actress category. In addition to the Tony nomination, Scaglione won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical and a Theatre World Award, both in 2009.

Beyond Broadway, Scaglione appeared in the USA Network television episode "Force Majeure" from Fairly Legal, playing singer Claudia Alves, and had a role as Professor Abrankhausen in the Nickelodeon Latin American series Kally's Mashup in 2017. In 2019, she starred as Jenna — translated for the production as Gina — in the Spanish-language staging of Waitress the Musical, titled Camarera, which opened at the Metropolitan Sura Theatre in Buenos Aires on April 17, 2019, with a Spanish translation by Lily Ann Martin and Pablo del Campo. The production closed on August 4, 2019.