Wilson Jermaine Heredia

Wilson Jermaine Heredia is an American actor born on December 2, 1971, in Brooklyn, New York, where he was raised as the son of Dominican immigrant parents — a mother who worked as a seamstress and a father who worked as a building superintendent.

Heredia is best known for originating the role of Angel Dumott Schunard in the Broadway musical Rent, which opened in 1996. His performance earned him both the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, both in 1996. In addition to the Broadway production, he originated the role at London's Shaftesbury Theatre in the West End. Heredia has spoken about the physical demands of the role, noting that while he found the transformational process of embodying the cross-dressing character rewarding, he disliked wearing makeup and experienced significant pain from the high heels required by the costume.

In 2005, Heredia reprised the role of Angel in the film adaptation of Rent, directed by Chris Columbus, alongside five other principal members of the original Broadway cast. He has noted that film performance allows him greater freedom in close-up shots than stage work permits. That same year, he presented an award at the Critics' Choice Awards on January 9, 2006, alongside Rent film costars Rosario Dawson, Taye Diggs, and Tracie Thoms.

Beyond Rent, Heredia appeared in the 1999 film Flawless, playing a drag queen named Cha-Cha opposite former Rent castmate Daphne Rubin-Vega, in a film that also featured Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman. He appeared with Dawson and Thoms again in the 2007 film Descent, playing a character named Diego. His television credits include guest appearances on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Medium, and Without a Trace, and in 2009 he filmed a pilot titled Three Chris's.

Heredia returned to Broadway on February 15, 2011, joining the cast of La Cage aux Folles in the role of Jacob, replacing Robin de Jesús. He performed alongside Harvey Fierstein, who won a Tony Award for writing the book of the musical, in the role of Albin/Zaza, and Christopher Sieber as Georges.

Following his Broadway return, Heredia relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he appeared in San Francisco Playhouse's production of Camelot as Sir Lancelot and Berkeley Playhouse's production of A Little Princess as Pasko. In 2021, he appeared in the film Tick, Tick...Boom!, based on the musical by Rent creator Jonathan Larson. The following year, he was cast as the lead in Syracuse Stage's world premiere of How to Dance in Ohio, a musical based on Alexandra Shiva's documentary of the same name. In August 2023, Heredia lent his voice to the Broadway Podcast Network audio drama Around the Sun, playing the character Kyle in three episodes of Season 3: Pinecones, a project that also featured Jai Rodriguez, another actor who has portrayed Angel in Rent.