Daphne Rubin-Vega (née Vega; born November 18, 1969) is an American actress, dancer, and singer-songwriter. She is best known for originating the roles of Mimi Marquez in the 1996 premiere of the Broadway musicalRent and Lucy in the 2007 premiere of the Off-Broadway play Jack Goes Boating.[2]
Rubin-Vega was born in Panama City, Panama, the daughter of Daphine Corina, a nurse, and José Mercedes Vega, a carpenter.[1] Her stepfather Leonard Rubin was a writer.[1] She also has Afro-Barbadian ancestry on her mother’s side.[4] Her
mother moved from Panama to the United States with her children when Daphne was only two years old, and died eight years later.[5]
While performing with El Barrio USA, Rubin-Vega landed an audition for a new musical written and composed by Jonathan Larson. The role was for Broadway musical Rent, and the role was Mimi Marquez, a nineteen-year-old, HIV-positive heroin addict who works at the Cat Scratch Club as an exotic dancer. Before landing the role, Rubin-Vega claims that she was not a major fan of musical theater. The struggling actress auditioned for musical director Tim Weil by singing "Roxanne" by The Police. She was then handed an original number from the production and told to learn it.[6]
Rubin-Vega performed in the original workshop before the play went to Broadway. At the time, the script was vastly different from the current version. She developed the role all the way to its Broadway premiere on April 29, 1996.[8] She left the cast on April 5, 1997, and was replaced by Marcy Harriell. Rubin-Vega did not participate in the film adaptation of Rent, as she was pregnant at the time of the movie's casting and filming.[9] The role subsequently went to Rosario Dawson. One of her castmates was Wilson Jermaine Heredia, with whom she also starred in the 1999 film Flawless.[10]
She later appeared in the 2000 Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show in the role of Magenta. She continued the role through the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, and in 2005, Rubin-Vega later recounted in an interview with Fox News that the theater had gone from selling out to barely selling any tickets at all: "It went from full house to practically two people."[13]
Rubin-Vega performed the lead role in the scripted fiction podcast, The Horror of Dolores Roach, which was released by Gimlet Media in October 2018.[21] The story, co-starring Bobby Cannavale as Louis,[22] is a contemporary reimagining of Sweeney Todd, using cannibalism as a metaphor for gentrification.[23]Dolores Roach is an adaptation of Rubin-Vega's stage performance in the one-woman play Empanada Loca. Both Empanada Loca and Dolores Roach were written by playwright Aaron Mark especially for Rubin-Vega, who said in a Vulture interview that he "wanted to do a deep dive into a character we haven't seen depicted much in the horror cannon."[23][24]
Since 2020, she has played the role of Luisa Lopez, a recurring character, in the television series Katy Keene on The CW. In 2021, she played the role of Daniela in In the Heights, earning praise for her performance from critics. Her involvement with the original musical dates back to its Off-Broadway and Broadway productions, where she provided the voice of the DJ who opens the show.[25]
Music career
She began her musical career as the lead singer for the Latin freestyle girl group Pajama Party, placing three songs on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989 and 1990. As a solo artist her biggest success is on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where in 1996 she hit No. 1 with the song "I Found It."
She returned to the top of the dance/club play charts in 2003 with a dance version of Elton John's "Rocketman". In 2001, she recorded her debut full-length rock album of original songs, Souvenirs. The album was never officially released after Mercury Records was purchased by Seagram. After being dropped from her label, Rubin-Vega began gifting copies out to fans, encouraging them to leak it online.[26] The record later saw limited release for the charity Broadway Cares.[27]
Rubin-Vega also released her second full-length album of original songs titled Redemption Songs released in October 2006 on Sh-K Boom Records.[9]
Personal life
Rubin-Vega has been married to businessman Thomas Costanzo since 2002.[28] They have a son.[29]
1995 – I Found It (Single) Produced and co-written by David Anthony
2001 – Souvenirs
2003 – Rocket Man (EP)
2006 – Redemption Songs
Rubin-Vega also appears on the original cast recording of Rent and the revival recording of The Rocky Horror Show. Rubin-Vega also appears on A Very Marti Holiday, a Christmas album heavily featured on Shade: Queens of NYC in which Rubin-Vega also had a guest appearance, and on the Katy Keene soundtrack.
