This Day in Indie History: Rosario Dawson

by MovieMaker Staff | Published May 8, 2007

Rosario Dawson was born in New York, NY on this day in 1979. In her formative years, Dawson lived in a Lower East Side tenement, where she was famously discovered by director Larry Clark, who cast her as the promiscuous girl-next-door in his slice of pubescent New York City life, Kids. Since then, Dawson has embodied the quintessential New Yorker for Spike Lee (He Got Game and 25th Hour), Edward Burns (Sidewalks of New York and Ash Wednesday), Ethan Hawke (Chelsea Walls) and Dito Montiel (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints). In a large departure, the self-professed comic book geek took a role in the movie adaptation of Frank Millerâ€™s Sin City, thereby escalating her status as a fanboyâ€™s fantasy. Roles in Kevin Smithâ€™s Clerks II and Quentin Tarantinoâ€™s Death Proof have only cemented that status. Hereâ€™s to guessing what will happen when Sin City 2 hits theaters in 2008.

Factoid: In 2005 Rosario Dawson picked up the role left off by a pregnant Daphne Rubin-Vega, when she played Mimi Marquez in the film adaptation of the musical Rent. Although the Chris Columbus-directed film found little critical acclaim, Dawsonâ€™s role alongside the original Broadway cast was honored with nominations at that seasonâ€™s NAACP Image Awards and American Latino Media Arts Awards.