Name	Daphne Rubin-vega
Height
Naionality	Panamanian
Date of Birth	November 18, 1969
Place of Birth	Panama City, Panama
Famous for

Daphne Rubin-Vega first lit up on Broadway with her debut as Mimi in the original cast of "Rent". It earned her a Theater World Award, a Tony nomination as Best Actress in a musical and one for the Drama Desk Award. When she won the role for the 1994 workshop, writer/composer Jonathan Larson declared her Mimi "the real thing" and the show began its first life off-Broadway at NYTW before moving to the Nederlander in January 1996.

Born in Panama, Rubin-Vega moved to NYC's Greenwich Village with her family as a child. She got an early start when as a teen, she confronted producer Arif Mardin (who, years later produced the Broadway soundtrack to "Rent") at a vocal session for David Bowie and begged him to let her sing on the soundtrack to George Lucas' film, "Labyrinth". With a fabulous credit under her belt, she got the gig with the girl group Pajama Party, which made two albums on Atlantic before going off on her own to write and record singles for the indie club label, Maxi. Meanwhile, she was a member of the brand new Labyrinth theater company, and performing at Caroline's comedy club with a Latino troupe called El Barrio, USA. It was there that she got the call to audition for the 1994 workshop of "Rent".

After leaving "Rent" in 1997, Daphne Rubin-Vega cut her first album of original music "Souvenirs" for Polygram's now defunct Mercury label. She was the straight-laced cop Gloria Perez in "Wild Things", starring Kevin Bacon and Matt Dillon and won a Blockbuster Award for Best Supporting Actress/Suspense.

In 1999, she was Robert De Niro's love interest Tia, in the film "Flawless". Off-Broadway: In Karen Hartman's "Gum", she played a Middle-Eastern girl (Rahmi) dealing with the repressed attitudes of a culture where not only is gum forbidden, but where women have no freedom. She also played Sofia in Nilo Cruz' "Two Sisters and a Piano" (Public Theater/2000), a young pianist under house arrest in Cuba.

"These characters have given me the opportunity to play some very spirited women who are confronted with everything from HIV/AIDS (Mimi in "Rent"), to living under political repression (i.e. Castro and the Taliban ... Sofia in "Two Sisters..." Rahmi in "Gum"). They express their freedom despite limitations imposed by their respective cultures." Notes Rubin-Vega, "I'm educated both as actress and human being".

In 2001, Rubin-Vega returned to Broadway as Magenta in "The Rocky Horror Show" at the Circle in the Square Theater. The musical, based on the cult movie classic, also featured Tom Hewitt, Joan Jett, Dick Cavett and Raul Esparza, among others. She also won a Best Actress in a Feature Film from the New York Independent Film and Video festival for her lead as Olya in "Skeleton Woman". In 2002, she became a member of the Drama Department after performing in "Free to Be You and Me", directed by Douglas Carter Beane, and in 2003, she received a Lucille Lortel Best Featured Actress nod for her role as Canary Mary in Susan Lori Parks' "Fucking A" at the Public Theater, directed by Michael Greif.

In 2004, Daphne Rubin-Vega received her second Tony nomination for best featured actress in a play for Nilo Cruz' "Anna in the Tropics" also starring Jimmy Smits, and she appeared in MTC's "Between Us". She sizzled to rave reviews, receiving the first Outstanding Female Performance award given by Rutgers University and a Doctor of Humane Letters from Kean University (2005). "Dr." Rubin-Vega is now producing her second solo album right on the heels of her biggest production, her son.