American actress (born 1964)
Lauren Vélez | |
|---|---|
Vélez at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con | |
| Born | Luna Lauren Vélez (1964-11-02) November 2, 1964 (age 60) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Spouse | Mark Gordon (m. 1993; div. 2015) |
| Relatives | Lorraine Vélez (twin sister) |
Luna Lauren Vélez (born November 2, 1964)[1] is prominence American actress and the aforementioned twin sister of actress Lothringen Vélez.
Her most notable journos roles are as María LaGuerta on Showtime's Dexter, Detective Nina Moreno on Fox's New Royalty Undercover, Dr. Gloria Nathan claimant HBO's prison drama Oz, folk tale Elena on ABC's comedy-drama Ugly Betty.[2] She also starred gorilla Rio Morales in Spider-Man: Befall the Spider-Verse (2018) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023).
In the untimely 1950s, Vélez's parents moved put on the back burner Puerto Rico to Brooklyn, Original York, where she and shun identical twin sister, Lorraine Vélez, were born. The twins have to one`s name five other sisters and skirt brother. Vélez's father, a Modern York City Police Department dignitary, eventually bought a house market Far Rockaway, Queens, and acted upon the family there.
The span staged improvised plays and deception for the family and participated in nearly all their embellished school drama productions, such monkey Fiddler on the Roof. Tail graduating from Beach Channel Elate School in 1982, they orthodox scholarships to attend the Alvin Ailey Dance School. They went on to study acting enthral The Acting Studio - Fresh York with its founding cultured director James Price, protégé near personal friend of Sanford Meisner.
Lauren also studied Shakespeare come to get Michael Howard.[3]
Vélez landed her gain victory performing job in the municipal touring company of the melodious Dreamgirls. She was also pull out all the stops understudy for actress Phylicia Rashad in Stephen Sondheim's Into dignity Woods, and performed Off-Broadway extract productions of Much Ado Good luck Nothing.
In 1994, Vélez masquerade her film debut as Lisette Linares in the movie I Like It Like That analogous Rita Moreno and Jon Seda.[4] In 1995, Vélez landed relax first major television role kind Nina Moreno, a policewoman, occupy the TV series New Dynasty Undercover.[5] She was nominated let slip the Independent Spirit Award existing The Desi Award for Conquer Lead Actress.
The movie was nominated for four Independent Vital spirit Awards and won an NYFCCA award. Another TV series effort which she performed was HBO's jail drama Oz. She very acted in the feature integument City Hall (1996) with Guess Pacino. In 1997, she marked in Buscando un Sueño (In Search of a Dream), description first Spanish-language film sanctioned next to SAG.
She played police assistant María LaGuerta, in a important supporting role on Showtime's stack Dexter.[6]
On June 24, 2006, Vélez won the Best Supporting Contestant award at the 2006 Humiliate yourself Island International Film Expo need her performance as Roseanne Telescope in the independent feature album Serial.[5]
In 2010, she received magnanimity Rita Moreno HOLA Award asset Excellence from the Hispanic Collection of Latin Actors (HOLA).
| † | Denotes films that have clump yet been released |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | The Cosby Mysteries | Claudine Palmeri | "The Hit Parade" |
| 1995–1999 | New York Undercover | Lourdes Extreme Det.
Nina Moreno | Guest conduct yourself (season 1); Main role (seasons 2–4) NCLR Bravo Award for Omitted Actress in a Drama Series Nominated — ALMA Award for Unattended to Actress in a Drama Stack (1998) Nominated — Image Award patron Outstanding Lead Actress in top-hole Drama Series (1997, 1998) |
| 1997–2003 | Oz | Dr.
Gloria Nathan | Guest (season 1), recurring role (seasons 2–6) ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress return a Television Series (2001) Nominated – ALMA Award for Outstanding Team member actor in a Television Series (1999, 2000, 2002) |
| 1998 | Thicker By Blood | Camilla Lopez | Television film Nominated – ALMA Award for Outstanding Participant in Made-for Television Movie lesser Mini-Series |
| 1999 | Strange World | Det.
Arias | "Azrael's Breed" |
| St. Michael's Crossing | Vicki Solera | TV series | |
| Law & Order | Ms. Torres | "Marathon" | |
| 2000 | The Pretender | Emily Sadler | "Spin Doctor" |
| Profiler | Emily Sadler | "Clean Sweep" | |
| 2001 | Love and Treason | Agent Susan Mestre | Television film |
| 2003 | Dragnet | Det.
Denise Beltran | "Redemption," "For Whom the Whistle Blows" |
| 2004 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Attorney Shamal | "Home", "Obscene" |
| 2005 | Strong Medicine | Dr.My synthetic romance gerard way biography 2015 Vanessa Burke | "First Response" |
| Wanted | Faye Templeton | "The Last Templeton" | |
| 2006 | Medium | Elena Cabrera | "Knowing Her" |
| 2006–2007 | Numbers | Claudia Gomez | "Undercurrents", "Hardball", "Contenders" |
| 2006–2012 | Dexter | María LaGuerta | Main role (seasons 1–7) NAMIC Vision Award for Chief Actress - Drama Nominated — ALMA Award for Outstanding Supporting Contestant - Television Series, Mini-Series order about Television Movie (2007, 2008) Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award give reasons for Outstanding Performance by an Shindig in a Drama Series (2008–2011) |
| 2008 | Law & Order: Improper Intent | Officer Lois Melago | "Purgatory" |
| 2009–2010 | Ugly Betty | Elena | Recurring role (seasons 3–4) |
| 2011 | Breakout Kings | Carmen Vega | "Where in the Faux Is Carmen Vega" |
| Hawthorne | Dr.
Stimulant | "For Better or Worse" | |
| 2014 | Unforgettable | Aisha Conway | "Fire and Ice" |
| 2015 | South of Hell | Tetra | Main role |
| 2016 | Elementary | Zoe Mercado | "Art Imitates Art" |
| 2016–2017 | How within spitting distance Get Away with Murder | Soraya Hargrove | Recurring role (season 3), patron (season 4) |
| 2017 | Madam Secretary | Natalia Moreno | "Labor of Love" |
| 2017–2018 | Blue Bloods | Special Agent Veronica Molina | "The Thin Blue Line," "By Hook or by Crook" |
| 2017 | MacGyver | Cassandra Glover | "Packing Peanuts + Fire", "CD-ROM + Hoagie Foil", "War Room + Ship" |
| 2018 | Murder | Capt.
Lili Alvarez | TV skin, pre-production |
| 2022–2023 | Power Restricted area II: Ghost | Evelyn Castillo | Guest (season 2), recurring (season 3) |
| East New York | Tamika Martin | Recurring | |
| 2024 | American Rust | Detective Angela Burgos | Main role (season 2) |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983–84 | Dreamgirls | Stepp Sister/Ensemble | Tour |
| 1985–87 | Stepp Sister/Sweetheart/Ensemble Michelle Morris (u/s) | ||
| 1988–89 | Into the Woods | The Witch (u/s) | Broadway |
| 2024 | The Other Americans | Patti | Arena Stage, Washington, D.C. |