Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez, born Rosa Maria Perez on September 6, 1964, in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, is an American actress, choreographer, and activist whose career has spanned film, television, and Broadway. She was born at Greenpoint Hospital to Lydia Pérez, a Puerto Rican woman originally from Humacao, and Ismael Serrano, a merchant marine from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. One of ten children born to her mother, Perez spent portions of her childhood in group homes and foster care in New York and Peekskill, remaining a ward of the State of New York until age 12. She attended Grover Cleveland High School in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens.

Perez began her professional life as a dancer in the early 1980s, appearing on Soul Train after a talent scout approached her at a nightclub while she was enrolled at Los Angeles City College with plans to study biochemistry. Her acting career was launched in 1988 when Spike Lee noticed her at the dance club Funky Reggae and cast her as Tina in Do the Right Thing, released in 1989. She subsequently choreographed music videos for artists including Janet Jackson, Bobby Brown, Diana Ross, and LL Cool J, and served as choreographer and segment producer for the Fly Girls dance troupe on the Fox comedy series In Living Color, for which she earned three Primetime Emmy Award nominations between 1990 and 1994.

Her film work through the 1990s and beyond includes White Men Can't Jump (1992), the 1993 film Fearless, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and It Could Happen to You (1994), in which she co-starred with Nicolas Cage. She voiced the character Chel in the DreamWorks Animation film The Road to El Dorado (2000) and played corrupt police officer Carol Brazier in Pineapple Express (2008). Later film credits include Birds of Prey (2020), in which she portrayed Renee Montoya, and the 2021 film adaptation of Clifford the Big Red Dog. On television, she starred in the NBC musical drama Rise in 2018 and appeared in the comedy-drama series The Flight Attendant beginning in 2020, earning a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for that role. She also had a role in season two of the Showtime series Your Honor in 2023.

In September 2014, ABC announced Perez would join the talk show The View as a co-host alongside Whoopi Goldberg, Nicolle Wallace, and Rosie O'Donnell for the series' 18th season. She departed the program on July 8, 2015.

Perez's Broadway career spans from 2002 to 2015. She made her Broadway debut in Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and later starred in The Ritz. She also participated in The 24 Hour Plays in both 2003 and 2004. In 2015, she returned to Broadway to appear in Fish in the Dark, a play written by Larry David.

In February 2014, Perez published an autobiography titled Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling, and also recorded the audio version of the book. Beyond her entertainment career, Perez has been active in advocacy work, including her appointment by President Barack Obama to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, on which she was sworn in on February 2, 2010. She directed a Spanish-language AIDS public service campaign titled Join the Fight for Cable Positive and Kismet Films, and produced the documentary Yo soy Boricua, pa'que tu lo sepas!, which chronicles her activism on behalf of Puerto Rican rights.