Natalie Venetia Belcon

Natalie Venetia Belcon is an American actress and singer of Trinidadian heritage whose Broadway career has spanned from 1992 to 2025. Born in Trinidad and raised in the Bronx, Belcon comes from a musically accomplished family: her father is a jazz trumpeter of Venezuelan and Spanish descent, and her mother, who is Trinidadian, studied classical piano at the Juilliard School of Music. Belcon graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1991.

Her Broadway credits include Once on This Island, Rent, in which she played Joanne Jefferson, Avenue Q, Wicked, Matilda the Musical, and Buena Vista Social Club. In Avenue Q, she originated the role of Gary Coleman, a former child television star, in the Tony Award-winning production. At the Shubert Theatre, she took on the role of Mrs. Phelps in Matilda the Musical, replacing Karen Aldridge. In March 2025, she opened the Broadway production of Buena Vista Social Club as Omara, portraying Cuban singer and dancer Omara Portuondo. That performance earned her the 2025 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical.

Beyond Broadway, Belcon has accumulated significant Off-Broadway and regional theater credits. She appeared as Columbina in the world premiere of The Glorious Ones, a musical based on the novel by Francine Prose, at the Pittsburgh Public Theater in April 2007, and reprised the role Off-Broadway later that year. She is featured on the original cast recordings of Avenue Q, The Glorious Ones, and The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin. Belcon also participated in multiple productions and workshops of The Last Smoker in America, an original four-character musical by Bill Russell and Peter Melnick, which had its world premiere at CATCO in Columbus, Ohio, was presented at the 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival, and ran Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre from July through September 2012.

On television, Belcon held recurring roles on The Education of Max Bickford, Beverly Hills, 90210, and Roc. She appeared alongside her Avenue Q co-star John Tartaglia in Johnny and the Sprites, playing Gwen, the neighbor of Tartaglia's character Johnny T. Her guest appearances include The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which she played JoAnn Morgan, as well as episodes of Martin, Living Single, and The Cosby Show. She also appeared as an HR representative in the series Damages.