Rosario Dawson Biography

Fast Facts

• Describes her ethnicity as black, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Irish and Native American
• Studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York City
• Contributed to the voice-over commentary on the remix of Prince's hit "1999" when she was 20
• Replaced Halle Berry in the 2002 film The Adventures of Pluto Nash
• Took guitar lessons from Joshua Jackson and Eddie Murphy
• Was arrested outside the Republican National Convention in New York City in 2004 while filming a scene for the film This Revolution when she refused to get out of the street
• Cofounded Voto Latino, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that encourages people to vote
• Made her stage debut in 2005 in the Public Theater's revival of the 1971 musical Two Gentlemen of Verona in Central Park
• Returned to her roots for the movie musical Rent (2005), set on Manhattan's Lower East Side (the neighborhood in which she grew up)
• Was a keynote speaker at the 2009 National Conference on the Primary Prevention of Men's Violence Against Women in Washington, D
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