Rosario Dawson
☼ Born on 9 December 1979, in New York City, New York, USA
Biography
This stunning and resourceful actress has been primarily a film player thus far. Only recently has she been opening herself up more to doing television (the series Gemini Division (2008), which she executive-produced), and animated voice-overs. Dawson's powerhouse talent stands out the most in edgy, urban filming that dates back to 1995 when she was only sixteen.
A rags-to-riches article entitled "Rosario Dawson: From Tenement to Tinseltown" probably says it all. Rosario was born on May 9, 1979 in New York City. Her mother, Isabel Celeste, of Puerto Rican and Afro-Cuban descent, is a singer, and her stepfather, who raised her, Greg Dawson, of Irish descent, is a construction laborer. Her parents, who married when both were teenagers, eventually divorced. Rosario and her younger brother, Clay Dawson, had it hard while growing up, and were cared for by family members, most of whom were poverty-stricken, and some of whom were HIV-positive.
Her career actually started as a child when she made a minor showing on the children's show, Sesame Street (1969). As the story goes, she was "discovered" as an adolescent on her front porch step by two photographers. One of them, Harmony Korine, was an aspiring screenwriter who thought the inexperienced sixteen-year-old was ideal for the controversial cult film Kids (1995), in which she would portray a sexually active adolescent. It took time for Rosario's film career to kick in after that, but by the late 1990s, she had nabbed several inde
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pendent films. Since then, she has moved into main-stream hits (and misses) and has surprised viewers with her earthy, provocative, uninhibited approach to her roles.
Reflecting New York's tougher, tawdrier side as assorted streetwalkers, homeless mothers, drug addicts, etc., her film highlights have included Light It Up (1999), Edward Burns' Sidewalks of New York (2001), Spike Lee's 25th Hour (2002) and Shattered Glass (2003). For Oliver Stone, she portrayed the duped bride of Colin Farrell's famed B.C. Macedonian warrior, Alexander (2004) (as in "...the Great"), which featured a notoriously violent-tinged nude/sex scene.
Expanding her horizons beyond film, she has always expressed interest in singing. She hooked up with Prince for the re-release of his 1980s hit "1999" and appeared in The Chemical Brothers' video for the song "Out of Control" from the album "Surrender". She is also featured on the Outkast track, "She Lives in My Lap". On stage, she co-starred as Julia in a revival of "Two Gentlemen of Verona" at the Public Theater's "Shakespeare in the Park" and appeared in "The Vagina Monologues".
She lucked into and got to show off her singing chops in the film adaptation of the hit New York musical Rent (2005), when Daphne Rubin-Vega, the original Mimi, became pregnant and was unable to reprise her exotic dancer role. Rosario also appeared as a prostitute in the adaptation of the graphic novel Sin City (2005). Of late, she has turned to producing. One of those, Descent (2007), had her playing a college coed who is brutally attacked and raped by a fellow student. Her more popular ventures have thus far included the role of Valerie Brown in the live-action version of the comic strip Josie and the Pussycats (2001), the Will Smith starrer Men in Black II (2002), Eagle Eye (2008) with Shia LaBeouf and Seven Pounds (2008), again with Smith, in which she offered one of her more tender-hearted performances as a woman with a potentially fatal heart condition.
More recent millennium films opposite some of Hollywood's top leading movie men include the tense actioneer Unstoppable (2010) with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine; the comedy/fantasy Zookeeper (2011) opposite Dalekmania (1995); romantic dramedy 10 Years (2011) with Channing Tatum; crime drama Fire with Fire (2012) with Bruce Willis; romantic comedy Top Five (2014) with Chris Rock; and action adventure Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) with Woody Harrelson. She has also top-lined independent films with her own feisty characters such as the thriller Unforgettable (2017) and the title role in the dramedy Krystal (2017).
Focusing also on TV projects, Rosario has graced such action series/mini-series as Daredevil (2015), Iron Fist (2017) and The Defenders (2017), as well as the comedy Jane the Virgin (2014) and animated cartoon series The Last Kids on Earth (2019).
Off-camera, the still-single Dawson is highly active in political, social and environmental causes and has been involved with such organizations/charities/campaigns as the Lower East Side Girls Club, Global Cool, the O.N.E. Campaign, Oxfam, Amnesty International, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Control Arms, International Rescue Committee, Voto Latino (which she founded), Conservation International, Doctors Without Borders, National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy and Save the Children. In October 2008, she lent her voice to the RESPECT! Campaign, a movement aimed at preventing domestic violence.
In the role of actor
Haunted Mansion (17/08/2023)
A grieving tour guide helps a single mother rid herself of the ghosts haunting her new home in Haunted Mansion. Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield) is a former astrophysicist, who has been giving ghost tours in New Orleans since the tragic death of his wife. Ben is recruited by Father Kent (Owen Wilson) to visit the […]
Clerks III (22/09/2022)
The directionless convenience store workers decide to make a movie about their lives in Clerks III. Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) are still working in the Quick Stop Convenience Store as they approach their 50s. However, Randal is forced to reflect on his life when he has a near-fatal heart attack. […]
Zombieland: Double Tap (17/10/2019)
We catch up to the ragtag group of survivors a decade later in Zombieland: Double Tap. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) have spent ten years surviving together in the zombie-infested United States. However, when Columbus proposes to Wichita, she runs off with Little Rock, who in […]
The LEGO Batman Movie (22/02/2017)
The LEGO Dark Knight sets out to protect Gotham City from The Joker in The LEGO Batman Movie. After foiling the latest plan by The Joker (Zach Galifianakis), Batman (Will Arnett) is shocked to discover that new commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) wants to de-emphasize Batman’s vigilantism. In addition, Batman is shocked to discover that he […]
Top Five (15/12/2014)
Chris Rock writes, directs, and stars in this dramedy about a comedian, who wants to be taken more seriously. Andre Allen (Rock) is considered the funniest man in American, whose claim to fame was a trilogy of Hammy the Bear buddy cop films, in which Allen performed in a bear costume. No longer wanting to […]
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (23/08/2014)
Nine years after the original, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller return for more tales from Sin City. In the titular story A Dame to Kill For, photographer Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) is approached for a favour by his highly seductive ex-lover Ava Lord (Eva Green). However, Dwight soon gets more than he bargained for and […]
Trance (14/04/2013)
After playing the awards game with the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire and Oscar-nominated 127 Hours, director Danny Boyle returns to dishing out his unique take on genre films. In the case of Trance, what starts off as a fairly ordinary heist film, turns into psychological thriller in which the main protagonist begins to doubt the reality […]
Eagle Eye (28/09/2008)
I find it a bit ironic that it a negative review of Eagle Eye at FirstShowing.net that resulted in me to bite the bullet of see the film, after going back and forth about it all day, and I ended up liking it. The key to me decided to see the film was the desire […]
Grindhouse (08/04/2007)
This film can’t be really described in words, you really must experience it yourself. That said, it was the most fun I can at the movies this year. Of the two features, I would say I enjoyed Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror better. It just seemed more campy and fun. However, as a whole package, I […]