Daphne Rubin-Vega

Daphne Rubin-Vega ( 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 musical Rent and Lucy in the 2007 premiere of the Off-Broadway play Jack Goes Boating.

She developed the role all the way to its Broadway premiere on April 29, 1996.

She won the Theatre World Award in 1996 for Rent.

She was also awarded the Blockbuster Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Suspense Thriller for her role in the film Wild Things.

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.

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.

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."

Rubin-Vega has two Tony Award nominations to her credit: Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Rent, and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as Conchita in Anna in the Tropics (2003).

She starred with Phylicia Rashad in a musical version of Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba at Lincoln Center in March 2006.

She played the role of Fantine in the 2006 Broadway revival of the popular musical Les Misérables beginning November 9.

On March 2, 2007, she was replaced by Lea Salonga.

In February 2007, Daphne Rubin-Vega performed alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman in the play Jack Goes Boating off-Broadway at The Public Theater.

She appeared in a cameo role in the 2008 feature film Sex and the City.

In November 2010, she received an Independent Spirit Awards nomination, for reprising her role in the film adaptation of Jack Goes Boating.

She starred Off-Broadway as Yvette in Tommy Nohilly's world premier of Blood From A Stone at The New Group's Acorn Theater until February 19, 2011.

She appeared in the Off-Broadway cast of Love, Loss, and What I Wore from March 23 to April 24, 2011.

Later that year, the feature film Union Square, co-written and directed by the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Award Winner, Nancy Savoca, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Rubin-Vega also appeared as Bombshell publicist Agnes in the second season of the TV series Smash (2012) and as Luisa Lopez in the TV series Katy Keene (2020).

In 2021, Rubin-Vega starred as salon owner Daniela in the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights.

In 2024, she voiced Carmilla Carmine in the adult animated musical animated series Hazbin Hotel.

Rubin-Vega was born in Panama City, Panama, the daughter of Daphine Corina, a nurse, and José Mercedes Vega, a carpenter.

Her stepfather Leonard Rubin was a writer.

She also has Afro-Barbadian ancestry on her mother’s side.

Her

mother moved from Panama to the United States with her children when Daphne was only two years old, and died eight years later.

Rubin-Vega studied theater at the New LAByrinth Theater Company as well as with William Esper Studio.

She also performed with the comedy group El Barrio USA.

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.

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.

In spring 2012, Rubin-Vega returned to Broadway in a new revival of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, playing the role of Stella Kowalski opposite Blair Underwood as Stanley.

On October 25, 2016, Rubin-Vega starred as Beatriz in the world premiere of Miss You Like Hell, a new musical by Quiara Alegría Hudes and Erin McKeown, commissioned by – and staged at – the La Jolla Playhouse.