Rosie Perez Movies and Career Information

Rosa María "Rosie" Pérez (born September 6, 1964) is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist. Pérez was born in the Brooklyn, New York neighborhood of Bushwick to Puerto Rican parents. Her mother, Lydia Pérez (née Fontañez), a singer, was married to Ventura Pérez at the time of Rosie's birth. However, Rosie's biological father is Ismael Serrano, a Merchant Marine with whom her mother had had an affair. Much of her young life was spent in foster care. She attended Grover Cleveland High School, which is located in Ridgewood, in the New York City borough of Queens, and Los Angeles City College in Los Angeles, California. Pérez started her career in the late 1980s as a dancer on Soul Train and has choreographed music videos by Janet Jackson, Bobby Brown, Diana Ross, LL Cool J and The Boys. She was the choreographer for the dancing group the Fly Girls who were featured on every performance of In Living Color. She was noticed in a dance club by Spike Lee in 1988, who hired her for her first major acting role in Do the Right Thing. She made her Broadway debut in Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. Perez had her third major role