New York born and bred beauty Rosario Dawson landed her first film role in Larry Clark’s controversial “Kids” (1995) after being discovered by the director while hanging out near her East Village tenement home. The unseasoned performer played Ruby in the film, a free-speaking sexually promiscuous teen who gets tested for HIV after engaging in extensive risky behavior. “Kids” was both praised and derided for its depiction of American urban youth, and the controversy resulted in the young actress winning a much larger audience for her acting bow than was expected. Her turn was appropriately chilling, although it was the dark-haired, wide-eyed fifteen-year-old’s uncommonly striking and unsettlingly attractive appearance that would separate her from the rest of the cast.
Dawson made the most of her opportunity in “Kids” and pursued an acting career. Her next major role was that of Lala in Spike Lee’s “He Got Game” (1998). Here she played a bewitching but opportunistic girlfriend to uncommonly talented basketball player Jesus (Ray Allen), eager to get her share of his potential fame and wealth. Dawson could also be seen that year in the episodic comedy “Side Streets”, playing a Puerto Rican Bronx native with relationship problems in this New York City-set feature looking at people in each of the city’s five boroughs. In 1999, Dawson teamed up with Prince for his timely re-release of his 1980s hit “1999″. This remixed version featured the actress in an introductory voiceover, offering commentary on the state of the world in the titular year. Later in 1999, she was featured in the New York City high school hostage drama “Light It Up”, playing a brainy, cool-headed student encouraging moderation in the explosive situation. 2000 saw her with a supporting role as flaky party girl Lana in the disappointing romantic comedy “Down to You”.
Dawson’s career was certainly on the ascent. She landed a co-starring role in the Edward Burns romantic comedy “Sidewalks of New York” (2000) and was also cast as Valerie in the live-action adaptation of “Josie and the Pussycats” (2001). In 2002, Dawson was involved in saving the world in the summer sequel hit “Men In Black II”. She replaced Halle Berry as the female lead of the long-delayed futuristic comedy “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” opposite Eddie Murphy and ended the year co-starring in Spike Lee’s crime drama “The 25th Hour.” Her best role came when she was cast alongside The Rock and Seann William Scott in the crowd-pleasing action-comedy-buddy flick “The Rundown” (2003), serving as the love interest for the stars’ combative characters, and the actress’s fiery depiction of Alexander the Great’s hellcat wife Roxanne (and her erotic if violently charged nude scenes) were among the best elements of Oliver Stone’s bloated would-be epic “Alexander” (2004).
As the neice of a professional cartoonist, Dawson was naturally drawn to appear in director Robert Rodriguez and writer-artist Frank Miller’s visually arresting adaptation of Miller’s crime noir comic book series “Sin City” (2005), playing the dominatrix prostitute/”warrior woman” Gail in “The Big Fat Kill” sequence, gleefully mowing down the enemies of Old Town’s hookers with automatic weapons while still looking fabulous in lingerie.
- Born:
on 05/09/79 in New York, New York
- Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Brother: has one
- Mother: Isabel Dawson.
Significant Others
- Companion: Cris Judd. rumored to be dating as of December 2002
- Companion: Jay-Z. dating as of fall 2000; no longer together as of September 2002
- Companion: Josh Jackson. dating as of Septmeber 2002
Milestones
- 1995 Made feature debut with supporting role in “Kids”
- 1998 Co-starred as the opportunistic girlfriend of basketball star Jesus in the Spike Lee drama “He Got Game”
- 1998 Featured in the New York City-set episodic comedy feature “Side Streets”
- 1999 Contributed introductory voiceover commentary to Prince’s remixed timely release of his hit “1999″
- 1999 Starred as a cool-headed student with high aspirations who becomes embroiled in a hostage situation at her New York City high school in “Light It Up”
- 2000 Featured in the Edward Burns-directed romance “Sidewalks of New York”
- 2000 Had a supporting role in the romantic comedy “Down to You”
- 2001 Cast as rocker Valerie in the big screen live action adaptation of the popular cartoon series “Josie and the Pussycats”
- 2002 Acted in Ethan Hawke’s feature directorial debut “Chelsea Walls”
- 2002 Cast in the summer hit sequel “Men In Black II”
- 2002 Co-starred in Spike Lee’s crime drama “The 25th Hour”
- 2002 Starred opposite Eddie Murphy in the sci-fi comedy “The Adventures of Pluto Nash”
- 2003 Co-starred with Seann William Scott and The Rock in “The Rundown,” directed by Peter Berg
- 2003 Starred in “Shattered Glass,” the true story of a young journalist who fell from grace when it was found he had fabricated over half of his articles
- 2004 Co-starred in Oliver Stone’s “Alexander” as Roxane the wife of Alexander (Colin Farrell)
- 2005 Played Mimi Marquez, an HIV-positive exotic dancer and drug addict in the big-screen adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s Tony-winning musical “Rent”
- 2005 Starred in “Sin City” the adaptation of comic book icon Frank Miller’s uber-noir series of grapic novels; co-directed by Miller and Robert Rodriguez
- Raised in downtown Manhattan
- Will play Mimi Marquez, an HIV-positive exotic dancer and drug addict in the big-screen adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s Tony-winning musical “Rent” (lensed 2005)
