Raquel Castro

Raquel Castro is an American actress and singer born on November 17, 1994, in New York. Her father is Puerto Rican, and her mother is of Italian and Jewish descent. Castro has worked across film, television, stage, and music throughout her career.

Castro made her first on-screen appearance in an episode of the television series Third Watch before landing her breakthrough role in the 2004 film Jersey Girl, directed by Kevin Smith. In the film, she played Gertie Trinké, the daughter of characters portrayed by Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. The performance earned her the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film – Young Actress Age Ten or Younger. That same year, Castro appeared on Broadway in Irving Berlin's White Christmas.

Her television work includes a 2005 appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in an episode titled "Alien," as well as two episodes of Liv & Maddie's second season, "BFF-A-Rooney" and "SPARF-A-Rooney," in which she played a character named South Salamanca. Castro also appeared in the independent films Little Fugitive and Tracks of Color, the latter released in 2007, and had a role in The Ministers (2009), which starred John Leguizamo. In 2006, she was cast as Nicole in the music video for Ludacris's "Runaway Love," featuring Mary J. Blige.

On the singing side, Castro competed in the first season of NBC's The Voice, advancing past the Blind Audition round under the coaching of Christina Aguilera before being eliminated during the first round of Live shows alongside Lily Elise. She released her debut single "Diary" on February 1, 2012, on iTunes and CDBaby; the song was written by Alyssa Bonagura and Ted Bruner and produced by J Chris Griffin. A remix titled "Diary (J Chris Griffin Remix)" followed on March 11, 2012. A subsequent single, "Game Over," was released on January 29, 2013, and was written with the assistance of the IDA Program. In 2019, Castro provided vocals for the theme song of the Netflix original series Carmen Sandiego. She also appeared on the second season of NBC's Songland, where she presented her song "Wrong Places" to H.E.R., who selected it for her album.