Idina Menzel Biography

Idina Menzel (born Idina Kim Mentzel on May 30, 1971 in New York City) is a Jewish American actress, singer and songwriter.

Beginning in high school and throughout college, Menzel often played and sang at weddings. Her professional life changed greatly when she auditioned for a rock musical based upon Puccini's La Bohème. That show, the late Jonathan Larson's Rent, was Menzel's Broadway debut. For her performance as Maureen Johnson in the original cast of the 1996 musical she received a Tony nomination in the Best Featured Actress in a Musical category.

Following the success of Rent, she originated the role of Dorothy in Summer of ’42 at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, starred as Sheila in the Broadway Encores! Production of Hair and appeared on Broadway as Amneris in Aida. 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 Rent and The Vagina Monologues.

What is perhaps the most notable work of Menzel's thus far was her appearance on Broadway in the critically-acclaimed musical Stephen Schwartz Wicked, based upon the popular 1995 Gregory Maguire novel, for which she received the 2004 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.

Menzel is currently appearing off-Broadway in the Public Theater's production of See What I Wanna See, a controversial new Michael John LaChiusa-penned musical whose run is set to end in December 2005.

In film, Menzel has appeared in Summer of Sam, Just a Kiss, Kissing Jessica Stein, Tollbooth, Water, Ask the Dust, and Rent, in which she and five other original cast members reprised their on-stage roles. She also made an appearance in the movie Camp in which legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim also made an cameo.

Her television work consists mostly of guest spots on such programs as Rescue Me, husband Taye Diggs's Kevin Hill, and the animated series Hercules.

Menzel performed at the 1998 Lilith Fair summer concert festival, and continues to write and perform original music. She has toured extensively and frequently performs in various venues throughout New York City. She produced and released her debut album, Still I Can’t Be Still, released on Hollywood Records in 1998. Her sophomore album, Here, was released by Zel Records in 2004. Menzel has contributed to soundtracks, including those for the film The Other Sister and the ABC television dramedy Desperate Housewives.

Singer Ray Charles invited Menzel to be among an elite group of his favorite contemporary artists to duet with him on one of the tracks of Charles' album Genius and Friends. The tracks were recorded in 1998 but were never produced, and it was one of his dying wishes that the album be made, a wish that was fulfilled in 2005.

Menzel has appeared on the cast recordings of Rent and Wicked, two of the best-selling cast recordings, as well as the recording of Lippa's The Wild Party and the soundtrack of the Rent film. She will also soon be heard on the cast recording of See What I Wanna See"

Menzel holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She is married to fellow stage, television and film performer and Rent, The Wild Party co-star Taye Diggs, who was also briefly featured in Wicked as Fiyero opposite Menzel's Elphaba.

Menzel recently signed a record deal with Warner Brothers Records and will begin recording when her run of See What I Wanna See is over.