Michaela Jaé Rodriguez facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Michaela Jaé Rodriguez
Rodriguez in 2020
Born	(1991-01-07) January 7, 1991 (age 34) Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Education	Berklee College of Music
Occupation	Actress singer
Years active	2011–present

Michaela Antonia Jaé Rodriguez (born January 7, 1991), also known as Mj Rodriguez, is an American actress and singer. She was born in Newark, New Jersey. Michaela Jaé went to several performing arts schools when she was young. She got a role in a theater play called Rent as Angel Dumott Schunard. For this role, she won the 2011 Clive Barnes Award.

After her performance in Rent, Michaela Jaé took a break from acting. She used this time to become her true self. From 2012 to 2016, she started acting on stage again. She also appeared in small TV roles. These included shows like Nurse Jackie, The Carrie Diaries, and Luke Cage.

In 2017, Michaela Jaé got one of the main roles in the FX TV series Pose. This show made history. It had the largest group of transgender actresses playing regular characters in a TV series. Her acting as Blanca Evangelista was highly praised. In 2021, she became the first transgender woman to be nominated for an Emmy Award in a main acting category. She was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her work in the final season of Pose. She also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama.

Early Life and Education

Michaela Jaé Rodriguez was born on January 7, 1991, in Newark, New Jersey. Her mother is African-American. Her father is half Puerto Rican and half African-American. Michaela Jaé went to Queen of Angels Catholic School. She wanted to be an actress from the age of seven. She started working towards this goal at age 11. Her mother enrolled her in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. She was part of their program for eight years. She also joined their New Jersey Youth Theater program.

Michaela Jaé felt like she wanted to be female from age 7. But she says she didn't accept it for many years. At 14, she first told her parents she was "bisexual/gay." Also at 14, Michaela Jaé joined the ballroom scene. This is a community where people, often LGBTQ+, compete in fashion and dance. She found support there from a "house father" who taught her to vogue. Vogue is a style of dance.

She graduated from Newark Arts High School. Later, she went to Berklee College of Music. She received scholarships there in 2009. She chose the stage name "Mj" Rodriguez. This name came from the Marvel Comics character Mary Jane "MJ" Watson. Michaela Jaé says she is a big comic book fan. She also used letters from her birth name to create "Mj."

Career Highlights

Starting in Theater

While in college, Michaela Jaé was cast in a play called Rent. She played the character Angel Dumott Schunard. She had wanted to play this role since she first saw the movie version of Rent in 2005. She met actress Fredi Walker-Browne. Fredi Walker-Browne was the first actress to play Joanne Jefferson in the Broadway Rent. She saw Michaela Jaé perform. Walker-Browne asked Michaela Jaé to try out for Angel in an upcoming off-Broadway production of Rent. Michaela Jaé got the role. She acted alongside Annaleigh Ashford. Michaela Jaé's performance won her the 2011 Clive Barnes Award. This award honors the late English writer and critic Clive Barnes.

Taking a Break and Returning to Acting

During this time, Michaela Jaé began to fully explore her transition. After the Rent play ended in 2012, she decided to take a break. She used this time to begin her transition. In early 2016, she started hormone therapy. After some private time, Michaela Jaé returned to acting. She told her agents that she would no longer try out for male roles. She was worried, but her agents were very supportive of her new gender identity.

From 2012 to 2016, Michaela Jaé appeared in small TV roles. These included Nurse Jackie, The Carrie Diaries, and Luke Cage. Her small role as "Sister Boy" in Luke Cage in 2016 was important. It was the first time a transgender actress and character appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

After returning to acting, Michaela Jaé posted a video on Facebook. In the video, she sang "Satisfied" from the Broadway musical Hamilton. Many people liked the video. It led to her being invited to try out for the roles of Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds in Hamilton. News of her audition as a trans actress for a role usually played by a cisgender person was shared by Broadway and LGBT news outlets. She then appeared in several other stage shows:

• Runaways in 2016
• Street Children in 2016
• Trans Scripts: Part 1, The Women in 2017
• Burn All Night in 2017

Michaela Jaé also got a supporting role in the independent film Saturday Church. She played a character named Ebony. The film came out in 2018. It was about a runaway teenager exploring their gender identity. They also get involved in the underground ball culture scene. Her role as Ebony earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.

Breakthrough with Pose and Music Career

In 2017, Michaela Jaé was cast as Blanca Evangelista in the FX series Pose. This happened after a six-month search for the right actor. The show was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals. It made history by casting five transgender actresses in main roles. As of 2018, Pose had the largest cast of transgender actors as regular characters in a TV series. The first episode of Pose was filmed in November 2017. It premiered in June 2018 and received great reviews.

The series takes place in New York City in the 1980s. It shows the lives of LGBTQ+ people of color. Many of them are Black trans women. They are part of the underground ballroom scene. Michaela Jaé's character, Blanca, is a young woman. She starts her own "house" called the House of Evangelista. She does this after finding out she has HIV. As the head of the House of Evangelista, she becomes a mother figure to several young LGBTQ+ people of color who have been abandoned. Her performance was called a "breakout, starring role" and was highly praised by critics. Other actors in the show included Indya Moore, Tony Award-winner Billy Porter, Dominique Jackson, and Angelica Ross.

Michaela Jaé performed with her Pose co-stars Dyllón Burnside, Billy Porter, and Ryan Jamaal Swain. They had a benefit concert on July 23, 2018. It celebrated the end of season 1 and raised money for GLSEN. They sang "Waving Through a Window" from Dear Evan Hansen.

In 2019, Michaela Jaé became the first openly transgender woman to win Best Actress - Television at the Imagen Awards.

In late 2019, Michaela Jaé played Audrey in the Pasadena Playhouse's production of Little Shop of Horrors. She was the first transgender woman of color to play this role in a major production. Her co-stars included George Salazar as Seymour and Amber Riley as Audrey II. She told Broadway.com, "I'm simply an actress. I think any woman should be considered for this role. [My casting] shouldn't be something that's trending—it should be normal."

On October 1, 2019, she and George Salazar performed "Suddenly Seymour" on The Late Late Show with James Corden on CBS.

In November 2019, Michaela Jaé signed a contract with Olay Body. This made her the first Latina trans woman to partner with the company. In May 2021, Variety reported that Michaela Jaé would star with Maya Rudolph in an upcoming comedy series for Apple TV.

In 2021, she became the first transgender woman to be nominated for an Emmy Award in a main acting category. She was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in the third and final season of Pose.

On June 4, 2021, Michaela Jaé released her first song, "Something to Say." It was released under Access Records. This song is the first single from her upcoming first album.

In September 2021, Michaela Jaé announced that she now goes by Michaela Jaé Rodriguez. She said, "I wanted people to see that I was more than just this character that I played on a television screen. ... It was only right and even more personal to let people know who the woman inside of Mj is."

On January 9, 2022, Michaela Jaé won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama. This happened at the 79th Golden Globe Awards. She became the first transgender actor to win a Golden Globe in the history of the awards.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Music videos

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Mj Rodriguez para niños

• Transgender culture in New York City
• List of LGBTQ people from New York City
• List of Puerto Ricans
• African American LGBT Community
• Nuyorican
• Puerto Ricans in New York City
• Puerto Ricans in the United States