Idina Menzel

Idina Kim Menzel (Mentzel; born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer.

Particularly recognized for her work in musicals on Broadway, she has been nicknamed the "Queen of Broadway" for her commanding stage presence, powerful mezzo-soprano, and reputation as one of the most influential stage actors of her generation.

Having achieved mainstream success across stage, screen, and music, her accolades include an American Music Award, a Billboard Music Award, a Daytime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for three Drama League Awards, and four Drama Desk Awards.

Idina Kim Mentzel was born on May 30, 1971, in Manhattan.

She grew up in New Jersey until about age three; her family moved to Syosset, New York on Long Island.

Her parents are Stuart Mentzel, a pajama salesman, and Helene Goldberg, a therapist.

She has a younger sister named Cara.

Idina Menzel is Jewish and her grandparents emigrated from Russia.

Menzel attended J. Irving Baylis Elementary School in Plainview, New York as well as H. B. Thompson Middle School in Syosset, and Syosset High School.

When Menzel was 15 years old, her parents divorced and she began working as a wedding and bar/bat mitzvah singer, a job that she held while a student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama there in 1992.

Idina changed the spelling of her surname to "Menzel" to better reflect the pronunciation that the Mentzel family had adopted in the United States.

She was friends with actor Adam Pascal before they worked together in Rent.

In 1995, Menzel auditioned for Rent, which became her first professional theatre job and her Broadway debut.

Menzel rose to prominence as a stage actress in 1996, making her Broadway debut as Maureen Johnson in the rock musical Rent, which earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Rent opened Off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop on January 26, 1996, but it moved to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre due to its popularity.

For her performance as Maureen Johnson in the original cast of the musical, Menzel received a Tony nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical losing to Ann Duquesnay for Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk.

Her final performance in the musical was on July 1, 1997.

Despite her breakout performance in Rent, Menzel did not experience the immediate success she was expecting, claiming she subsequently faded into "obscurity" for the following eight years.

Following the success of Rent, Menzel released her first solo album entitled Still I Can't Be Still on Hollywood Records.

Menzel also originated the role of Dorothy in Summer of '42 at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, starred as Sheila in the New York City Center Encores! production of Hair and appeared on Broadway as Amneris in Aida.

Menzel began transitioning into film and television in the early 2000s.

Menzel earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for her performance as Kate in the Manhattan Theatre Club's 2000 Off-Broadway production of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party.

Her other Off-Broadway credits include the pre-Broadway run of Rent and The Vagina Monologues.

In 2003, she originated the Broadway role of Elphaba in the musical Wicked, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

The popularity of the show, Menzel's character, and her signature song "Defying Gravity" earned her a devoted musical theatre following.

In 2003, Menzel starred alongside Kristin Chenoweth on Broadway in Wicked, a musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman based upon Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Shortly after a San Francisco try-out, Wicked began previews on October 8, 2003, with an official opening night on October 30.

Menzel's performance as Elphaba, the misunderstood Wicked Witch of the West, garnered critical acclaim, for which she won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.

Menzel's character also earned her a devoted fanbase, particularly among young girls who empathized with her misunderstood character, as well as a gay following.

She can be heard on the show's Original Broadway Cast (OBC) recording.

After leaving the show in 2005, she reprised the role in the musical's original West End production in 2006, becoming the highest-paid actress in West End theatre history.

After reprising her Rent role in the musical's 2005 film adaptation, she was cast as Nancy Tremaine in Disney's musical fantasy film Enchanted (2007), eventually returning to the role in its 2022 sequel.

As a recording artist and songwriter, Menzel has released seven studio albums, including I Stand (2008) and Holiday Wishes (2014); the latter peaked at number six on the Billboard 200, becoming her highest-charting studio album to-date.

She played recurring character Shelby Corcoran on the musical television series Glee from 2010 to 2013. Since 2013, Menzel has voiced Elsa in Disney's Frozen franchise, which includes two of the highest-grossing animated films of all-time.

"Let It Go", a song she recorded for the first film, peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first Tony Award-winning actor to earn a top-10 song on the chart, and cementing her status as a crossover success.

In 2014, Menzel returned to Broadway as Elizabeth Vaughan in the musical If/Then, for which she received a third Tony Award nomination.

In 2017, Irish songwriter Jimmy Walsh who was based in New York City said that in 1992, Menzel had recorded a demo for him of the song "In Your Eyes", which went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 for Irish singer Niamh Kavanagh.

Menzel was paid $75 for the recording.

In 2019, Menzel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was named a Disney Legend in 2022.

Menzel has since pursued supporting roles in larger film projects, including Uncut Gems (2019), Cinderella (2021), and You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023).