Michelle Rodriguez Biography

Mayte Michelle Rodríguez (born July 12, 1978) is an American actress, screenwriter and disc jockey. Rodriguez got her breakout role in the independent film Girlfight (2000), which was met with critical acclaim for her performance as a troubled boxer, and earned her several awards, including the Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award for Best Debut Performance. The following year, she made her Hollywood debut starring as Letty Ortiz in the blockbuster film The Fast and the Furious (2001), and would reprise the role with its sequels Fast & Furious (2009) and Fast & Furious 6 (2013).

During her career, she has appeared in a number of successful action-themed films, playing tough, independent roles in films including Blue Crush, S.W.A.T., Battle: Los Angeles and James Cameron's record-breaking Avatar. She is also known for her reprising roles as Shé in Robert Rodriguez's action exploitation films Machete and Machete Kills and as Rain Ocampo in the science-fiction franchise Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Retribution.

Rodriguez also branched into television, playing Ana Lucia Cortez in the second season of the television series Lost (2005"2010) as part of the main cast and then making numerous guest appearances before the series' end. She has also done numerous voice work in video games such as Call of Duty and Halo and lent her voice for the 3D animated film Turbo and in television for IGPX.

Early life

Rodriguez was born in San Antonio, Texas. Her mother, Carmen Milady Rodriguez (née Pared Espinal), is a native of the Dominican Republic, and her father, Rafael Rodriguez, is a Puerto Rican who served in the United States Army. Rodriguez moved to the Dominican Republic with her mother when she was eight years old and lived there until the age of 11, later settling in Jersey City, New Jersey. She dropped out of high school but later earned her GED; in total, she was expelled from five schools. She briefly attended business school before quitting to pursue a career in acting, with the ultimate goal of becoming a screenwriter and director.

Career

Having run across an ad for an open casting call and attending her first audition, Rodriguez beat 350 other applicants to win her first role in the low-budget 2000 independent film Girlfight. With her performance as Diana Guzman, a troubled teen who decides to channel her aggression by training to become a boxer, Rodriguez accumulated several awards and nominations for the role in independent circles, including major acting accolades from the National Board of Review, Deauville Film Festival, Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards, Las Vegas Film Critics Sierra Awards, and many others. The film itself took home a top prize at the Sundance and won Award of the Youth at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2002, she had a cameo appearance in Ja Rule's music video for his song "Always On Time".

Rodriguez has had notable roles in other successful movies, including Letty Ortiz in The Fast and the Furious (2001) and Rain Ocampo in Resident Evil (2002). She also appeared in Blue Crush and S.W.A.T.. In 2004, Rodriguez lent her voice to the video game Halo 2, playing a Marine. She also provided the voice of Liz Ricarro in the Cartoon Network series IGPX. From 2005 to 2006, she played tough cop Ana Lucia Cortez on the television series Lost during the show's second season (the character's first appearance was a flashback during the first season's finale, "Exodus: Part 1"), and returned for a cameo in the second episode of the show's fifth season, "The Lie", in 2009. She returned again in the penultimate episode of the series, "What They Died For", in 2010. In 2006, Rodriguez was featured in her own episode of G4's show Icons.

In 2008, Rodriguez appeared in Battle in Seattle. In 2009, she appeared in Fast & Furious, the fourth installment of the The Fast and the Furious film series. Later that year, Rodriguez starred in James Cameron's high-budget sci-fi adventure film Avatar, which became the highest-grossing film in history and Rodriguez's most successful film to date. She has expressed interest in returning for the film's two sequels. In 2009, Rodriguez also starred in Trópico de Sangre, an independent film based on the Dominican Republic's historic Mirabal sisters.

In 2010, Rodriguez appeared in Robert Rodriguez's Machete. The film received mostly positive reviews and earned $44 million at the box office. In 2011, she appeared with Aaron Eckhart in the science fiction film Battle: Los Angeles which grossed over $200 million in the worldwide box office. In 2012, she returned to play the good clone and bad clone of Rain Ocampo in Resident Evil: Retribution. In 2013, she reprised her role as Letty Ortiz in Fast & Furious 6. In the same year, Rodriguez will appear in Robert Rodriguez's film Machete Kills.

Typecast

Following her debut in Girlfight, Rodriguez has consistently portrayed tough and tomboyish characters who operate in traditional male fields such as the police force or armed forces. Rodriguez says that she does not mind the typecasting, and in fact, is somewhat responsible for it:

"Oh man, I was typecast the minute I did a film called Girlfight years ago. You allow yourself to be typecast. If I decided I didn't want to be typecast tomorrow, I'd just do an indie film where I play some poor girl who goes through some excruciating experience and win myself an award for crying or being raped. But at the end of the day, I'm not in it for the acting. I only wanna be someone I respect or someone that I consider interesting or fun. I'm here to entertain people and make a statement about female empowerment and strength, and that's what I've done for the last 10 years. I pigeonholed myself and I put myself in that box by saying no to everything else that came on my plate. Saying no to this, no to that, and eventually I just got left with the strong chick that's always being killed, and there's nothing wrong with that."

Notable rankings

Several times over the course of her career, she has been ranked in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women In The World", Maxim "100 Sexiest Women", and People en Español "50 Más Bellos", and was ranked No.74 in FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2009".

Writing

During the promotional tour of Fast & Furious 6 Rodriguez has stated that she originally joined the Hollywood business to become a screenwriter. She has also stated that she has two screenplays under development and plans to take a break from acting to pursue her writing. One is a family film based on a concept which she describes as "a 2012 story about purity and animals and children", and the other is a revision of an American remake of the 1997 German film Bandits which she describes as a film "about four girls who break out of jail and get chased across the country by the feds and by this MTV-like representative".

Disc jockey

Rodriguez has been performing as a disc jockey since 2009 - both internationally in nightclubs and at film première after-parties. Rodriguez has stated that her preferred genre to mix is house music and has gone on the record to say, that "for the most part I like playing for mature crowds so that I can go all the way back to the 1930s then through the 1960s, 1970 and 1980s - then kick it into house, hip-hop and R&B. I like to mix it up, it's pretty eclectic."

Personal life

She has ten siblings and half-siblings. She was partly raised by her devoutly religious maternal grandmother, and was brought up a Jehovah's Witness (her mother's religion), although she has since abandoned the faith. A DNA test of Rodriguez, performed by the television program Finding Your Roots, found that her ancestry is 72.4% European, 21.3% African, and 6.3% Native American. She also stated on the show that there was some racial conflict between her families, since her Puerto Rican father was light-skinned and her Dominican mother had a dark complexion.

Relationships

In early 2000, Rodriguez broke off a near engagement to a Muslim boyfriend, citing opposition to religious requests he made of her. She has since dated or reportedly been linked with her Fast and the Furious co-star Vin Diesel, and S.W.A.T. co-star Olivier Martinez.

In July 2006, Rodriguez told Cosmopolitan magazine that she was not a lesbian, but had "experimented with both sexes". In November 2006, her openly bisexual Bloodrayne co-star Kristanna Loken made comments to The Advocate that were widely interpreted and reported by the media as an admission that the two were in a relationship, though the relationship was never officially confirmed by either actress.

In June 2007, the lesbian magazine Curve ran a cover story that claimed Rodriguez to be bisexual. Rodriguez criticized the magazine for this, asserting that the magazine "put words in her mouth". She again stated that she was not a lesbian in a November 2008 interview in the Dominican women's magazine Cayena.

In September 2013, Rodriguez told Entertainment Weekly she has had relationships with both men and women, saying, "I don't talk about what I do with my vagina, and they're all intrigued. I've never walked the carpet with anyone, so they wonder: What does she go with her vagina? Plus, I play a butchy girl all the time, so they assume I'm a lesbo." She continued, "I've gone both ways. I do as I please. I am too f---ing curious to sit here and not try when I can. Men are intriguing. So are chicks."

Legal issues

In March 2002, Rodriguez was arrested for assault after getting into a fight with her roommate. The charges were later dropped after the roommate declined to press the allegations in court. In November 2003, Rodriguez went to court to face eight misdemeanor charges based on two driving incidents including a hit and run and DUI. In June 2004, Rodriguez pleaded no contest in Los Angeles to three of the charges: hit and run, drunken driving, and driving with a suspended license. She went to jail for 48 hours, performed community service at the morgues of two New York hospitals, completed a three-month alcohol program, and was placed on probation for three years.

In 2005, while filming Lost in Hawaii, Rodriguez was pulled over by Honolulu police multiple times; she was cited for driving at in a zone on Oahu on November 1, and was fined $357. She paid a $300 fine for driving in a zone on October 20, and was fined $197 for going in a zone on August 24.

On December 1, 2005, Rodriguez was pulled over and arrested for driving under the influence. Rodriguez pleaded not guilty when arraigned, but on the day of her trial in April 2006, she pleaded guilty to one charge of driving under the influence. She chose to pay a $500 fine and spend five days in jail instead of doing 240 hours of community service. Rodriguez cited her high doses of allergy-relieving steroids as part of the reason for her erratic behavior. Because the Kailua incident was a violation of her Los Angeles probation, Rodriguez was sentenced to 60 days in jail, a 30-day alcohol rehabilitation program and another 30 days of community service, including work for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, by a judge in Los Angeles on May 1, 2006. Because of overcrowding, she was released from jail on the same day she entered. She wrote about the experience on her blog.

In September 2007, Rodriguez allegedly violated her probation by not completing her community service and not following an alcohol education program. It was reported that Rodriguez originally submitted a document stating she performed community service on September 5, 2006, but it was later confirmed she was actually in New York City that day. Her lawyer claimed it was a clerical error. On October 10, 2007, following a hearing, she was sentenced to 180 days jail time after agreeing to admit to violating her probation. She was expected to spend the full 180-day term in jail, as she had been deemed ineligible for work furloughs and house arrest. However, after turning herself in to begin the jail term at the Century Regional Detention Facility located in Lynwood, California, on December 23, 2007, Rodriguez was released eighteen days later on January 9, 2008, due to overcrowding.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Girlfight	Diana Guzman	Deauville Film Festival Prize for Best Female Performance Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance National Board of Review Award for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actress Gotham Award for Breakthrough Performance Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Female Newcomer Nominated " Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Newcomer Nominated " Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated " Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cinematic Debut/Breakthrough Nominated " Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress Nominated " Black Reel Award: Best Actress Nominated " ALMA Award for Outstanding Latino Cast in a Feature Film
2001	'	Leticia "Letty" Ortiz	Nominated " ALMA Award for Best Actress in Film
2001	3 A.M.	Salgado	Nominated " ALMA Award for Outstanding Actor/Actress in a Made for Television Movie or Miniseries
2002	Blue Crush	Eden	Nominated " MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team (with Kate Bosworth and Sanoe Lake)
2002	Resident Evil	Rain Ocampo
2003	S.W.A.T.	Officer Chris Sanchez	Imagen Foundation Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Film
2004	Control	Teresa
2005	BloodRayne	Katarin
2006	'	Nicki
2007	Battle in Seattle	Lou
2008	Cats: The Movie	Jujube	Voice
2008	Gardens of the Night	Lucy
2009	Fast & Furious	Leticia "Letty" Ortiz	Nominated " ALMA Award for Actress in a Film
2009	Trópico de Sangre	Minerva Mirabal
2009	Avatar	Captain Trudy Chacon
2010	Machete	Luz / Shé
2011	Battle: Los Angeles	Technical Sergeant Elana Santos	Nominated " ALMA Award for Favorite Movie Actress-Drama/Adventure
2011	Citizen Jane	Charlotte Jane Foster
2011	Fast Five	Leticia "Letty" Ortiz	Cameo; picture only
2012	Resident Evil: Retribution	Rain Ocampo
2013	Fast & Furious 6	Leticia "Letty" Ortiz	Premios Tu Mundo-Fandango Cine's Latino Performance of the Year Nominated-Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress: Action
2013	Machete Kills	Luz / Shé
2013	Turbo	Paz
2013	Unity
2014	Fast and Furious 7	Leticia "Letty" Ortiz

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Punk'd	Herself	1 episode
2005	Immortal Grand Prix	Liz Ricarro	26 episodes
2005"2010	Lost	Ana Lucia Cortez	23 episodes ALMA Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Television Series Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Nominated " Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television
2007	Adventures in Voice Acting	Herself	1 episode
2010	Top Gear	Herself	1 episode
2011	Curiosity	Herself	Episode: "Alien Invasion, Are We Ready?"
2013	SpongeBob SquarePants
2013	American Dad	Jenny Smith	Voice

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	True Crime: Streets of LA	Rosie Velasco
2003	Driv3r	Calita
2004	Halo 2	Marine
2009	James Cameron's Avatar: The Game	Captain Trudy Chacon
2012	Call of Duty: Black Ops II	Strike Force Soldier