Rosario Isabel Dawson was born on May 09, 1979 in New York City, New York. Rosario sums up her conception to Esquire magazine as this, “I was conceived on Avenue X in Brooklyn with a prison condom that broke,” (a prison condom being a condom they give you when you leave prison, just to clarify). “My mom was ready to get an abortion. She was at the clinic, had an appointment. And then she says she felt me move, and she fell in love with me right then. But I was just a speck, so it wasn’t me moving. It was probably gas.” Rosario’s mother, Isabel, was only 16 years old when she gave birth to Rosario. To this day, Rosario has a very close relationship with her mother and mentions the interesting technique her mother used to discipline her to Esquire magazine… “She’d lick me right across my cheek like a cougar. And it was just so humiliating.”

  Rosario’s parents, Isabel (a vocalist and actress) and Greg (a construction worker) seperated when Rosario was young, but continued to live in the same building so that Rosario and her younger brother Clay could be close to them. Rosario describes her building to Conan O’Brien and Esquire magazine as a squat on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. When the family moved in, there was no electricity, no water, a hole in the floor, and a crack house across the street.

  Rosario’s ethnicity is just as eclectic as her personality. She is of Puerto Rican, Cuban, African American, Irish and Native American descent. She is involved with encouraging fellow Latino’s to be more active in their voting decisions with the Voto Latino organization. She starred in a PSA aimed to encourage teens to pratice safe sex with Sceanrios USA. And after her experience with working on Rent, Rosario became active with HIV/AIDS awareness. She has been involved with several organizations including Cable Positive, World AIDS Day, and most recently is a spokesperson for Aldo Fights AIDS. Rosario is also involved with the Stay Close organization where she is a spokesperson with her Uncle Frank Jump.

  Growing up, Rosario attended an alternative school in Downtown Manhattan and at the time she aspired to be a marine biologist. At the tender age of 15, Rosario was “discovered” by director Larry Clark and he immediately cast her as Ruby for his film Kids. At the age of 16, while in high school, Rosario decided to live with her Uncle Frank and his partner Vincenzo Aiosa. Rosario has great memories of living with Frank and Vincenzo, Frank has been a great influence in her life and she treasures their relationship tremendously. Rosario decided to forego her college plans and instead began to attend the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

  Her time at the Strasberg Institute was well spent. Rosario began landing roles in various films, including He Got Game, Side Streets, Light It Up and King Of The Jungle. Rosario became a household name in 2001, starring alongside Rachael Leigh Cook and Tara Reid in the film adaptation of Josie & The Pussycats. Later that year Rosario followed it up with memorable performances in the Edward Burns directed/written picture Sidewalks Of New York and the directorial debut of Ethan Hawke, Chelsea Walls.

  2002 brought a lot of recognition as an up & coming entainer and 6 more films for Rosario, including Ash Wednesday (another Edward Burns directed film), The First $20 Million Is Always The Hardest, Men In Black II and The Adventures Of Pluto Nash. The latter 2 films were big breaks for Rosario to share her talent for singing. Rosario seems to have taken up her mother’s love for performing, she has made many cameos on CD’s and soundtracks. Rosario has sung with Prince and Outkast, and did her own vocals for the movie and soundtrack to the film Rent. She has also appeared in music videos for The Chemical Brothers, Pharrell Williams and Aaliyah. There are no plans to date of Rosario releasing an album, but with her lovely voice, she could and have her loyal fans follow her on another amazing journey.

  During 2003 and 2004 Rosario continued to expand her resume. Noteable projects included Shattered Glass, which featured a who’s who of Hollywood talent. The all-star cast included Hayden Christensen, Chloë Sevigny and Peter Sarsgaard. Rosario also had the oppertunity to star opposite The Rock and Seann William Scott in the action-adventure film The Rundown. For the rest of the year, Rosario spent her time in Morocco, Thailand and England filming the Oliver Stone directed epic, Alexander.

  The biggest year in Rosario’s career has to be 2005. The independent feature, This Revolution, in which she was arrested for (a New York law forbids protestors from covering their faces – something Rosario was doing for the film – which takes place during a demonstration against President Bush) while filming premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The comic book turned blockbuster movie Sin City was also released, with Rosario portraying Gail. The film was a ground breaking piece of cinema, combining drawn on backgrounds, black and white cinematography and color add-ons. The director, Robert Rodriguez also made news for resigning from the The Directors’ Guild of America because they wouldn’t allow him to give co-directing credits to Sin City creator, Frank Miller. Rosario has been quoted saying that the film Rent is her best experience and she told Latina magazine that while filming Rent, “I’ve never pushed myself to push myself to the level that I have on this.” Fellow Rent new-comer Tracie Thomas told Latina magazine, “She never assumed that she held the answers to anything. She worked very hard.” With the release of the film, all of Rosario’s hard work paid off and it is one of Rosario’s greatest performances to date.

  Rosario continued to work with on the film Clerks 2, the long-awaited Kevin Smith directed sequel. The film received a 8-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival and was loved by “Clerks” fans and critics alike. This role proved that Rosario has a sense of humor and knows how to use it!

These past few years we have seen Rosario juggle roles in both major feature film and smaller independent movies. In 2007, Trybe films’ first feature film, Descent was released. The film was a thriller where Rosario is portraying a vengeful seductress after a she suffers a violent attack. Rosario also got to fulfill a dream of hers in 2007 when she got to work with famed director Quentin Tarantino in Death Proof – which was one part of the Tarantino/Rodriguez double-feature Grindhouse. Rosario was quoted as saying that can she recite the words to any Quentin Tarantino film, so she was excited to be a part of one of his films.

  In 2008, Rosario starred in the 30-episode web only series Gemini Division. Rosario starred in all 30 episodes as NYPD undercover Detective Anna Diaz – a street wise and tough-as-nails New York cop forced to live dual lives. The series created history as the first ever series made exclusively for the web, and paved the way for many types of new programming to be seen on the internet. Rosario also starred in Eagle Eye, an action-thriller and Explicit Ills, an independent drama about four interconnecting stories revolving around love, drugs and poverty in Philadelphia. Rosario closed out the year starring in the drama Seven Pounds with her former Men in Black II co-star Will Smith.

  2009 had Rosario working on numerous new projects including three feature films, voice-overs for two animated films and appearances on the hit children’s shows “Spongebob Squarepants” and “Handy Manny”.

  It looks like 2010 is going to be another big year for Rosario, as she has three big feature films coming out. In February, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief will be released featuring Rosario as Persephone, the Goddess of spring. October will bring the release of The Zookeeper, a romantic comedy co-starring Kevin James. And November will bring the film Unstoppable, an action/drama starring Denzel Washington.

  With more than 30 films under her belt, songs on soundtracks and albums, a production company (Trybe Films), and a sense of activism and charity, Rosario has a long shining career ahead of her. All of her fans are waiting and watching for more outstanding performances from this talented, amazing, and diverse entertainer.

Biography written by Jennifer for Sassy… Last updated January 2010