50 facts about actress Rosario Dawson

Learn 50 facts about actress Rosario Dawson.

1. Dawson was born in New York City.

2. Her mother, Isabel Celeste, is a writer and singer who is of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent.

3. Her mother Isabel was sixteen years old when Rosario was born.

4. Her mother never married Rosario's biological father, Patrick C. Harris.

5. When Rosario was one year old, her mother married Greg Dawson, a construction worker, who "loved and raised Rosario as his own daughter". Dawson stated, "He's always been my dad".

6. Dawson has a half-brother, Clay, who is four years younger.

7. Her mother Isabel and Greg divorced in 2001.

8. Dawson lived in Garland, Texas for a year and went to Garland High School.

9. At the age of 21, her mother Isabel moved the family into an abandoned building squat on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where she and her husband renovated an apartment and installed the plumbing and electrical wiring for the building, creating affordable housing where Rosario and Clay would grow up. Dawson has cited this part of her history when explaining how she learned that, "If you wanted something better, you had to do it all yourself."

10. Rosario Dawson is an American actress, singer, and writer.

11. She made her film debut in 1995 with the controversial teen drama Kids.

12. Her subsequent film roles include Men in Black II, 25th Hour, The Rundown, Alexander, Sin City, Clerks II, Death Proof, Eagle Eye, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Unstoppable, César Chávez, Trance, and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

13. For her role in Rent, Dawson won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture.

14. For her role in Top Five, she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in a Comedy.

15. Dawson portrays Claire Temple in Marvel's series' Daredevil and Jessica Jones.

16. As a child, Dawson made a brief appearance on Sesame Street.

17. At the age of 15, she was discovered on her front porch step by photographer Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, where Korine lauded her as being perfect for a part he had written in his screenplay that would become the controversial 1995 film Kids.

18. She went on to star in varied roles, ranging from independent films to big budget blockbusters including Rent, He Got Game, and Men in Black II.

19. In 1999, Dawson teamed up with Prince for the re-release of his 1980s hit "1999". The new remixed version featured the actress in an introductory voice over, offering commentary on the state of the world in the year before the new millennium.

20. She appeared in The Chemical Brothers' video for the song "Out of Control" from the album Surrender.

21. She is also featured on the track "She Lives In My Lap" from the second disc of the OutKast album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, in which she speaks the intro and a brief interlude towards the end. In 2001, she appeared in the movie, Josie and the Pussycats.

22. Dawson starred as Naturelle Rivera, the love interest of a convicted drug dealer played by Edward Norton, in the 2002 Spike Lee film drama, 25th Hour.

23. In the 2004 Oliver Stone film Alexander, she played the bride of Alexander the Great.

24. In the autumn of 2005, Dawson appeared on stage as Julia in the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park" revival of Two Gentlemen of Verona. It was her first appearance on stage.

25. In the film adaptation of the popular musical Rent in 2005, she played the exotic dancer Mimi Marquez, replacing Daphne Rubin-Vega, who was pregnant and unable to play the part.

26. She also appeared in the adaptation of the graphic novel Sin City, co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, portraying Gail, a prostitute-dominatrix.

27. She starred as Becky in 2006's Clerks II, and mentioned in Back to the Well, the making-of documentary, that the donkey show sequence was what made her decide to take the role.

28. Dawson, an avid comic book fan, co-created the comic book miniseries Occult Crimes Taskforce.

29. She was at the 2007 Comic-Con to promote Occult Crimes Taskforce.

30. She co-starred with former Rent alum Tracie Thoms in the Quentin Tarantino throwback movie Death Proof in 2007, part of the Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double feature Grindhouse.

31. She teamed up with friend Talia Lugacy, whom she met at the Lee Strasberg Academy, to produce and star in Descent.

32. On July 7, 2007, Dawson presented at the American leg of Live Earth.

33. In 2008, Dawson starred with Will Smith in Seven Pounds and in the Steven Spielberg produced Eagle Eye.

34. Starred in Gemini Division, an online TV series.

35. In the computer animated series Afterworld she voiced the character Officer Delondre Baines.

36. On January 17, 2009, Dawson hosted Saturday Night Live.

37. Voiced Artemis of Bana-Mighdall in the animated film Wonder Woman.

38. In 2009, Dawson performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

39. In 2009, Dawson also voiced the character of Velvet Von Black in Rob Zombie's animated feature, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto.

40. For the Kasabian album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, she is featured singing on the track "West Ryder Silver Bullet".

41. In 2010, she starred in the movies Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, as Persephone, and Unstoppable, as railway yardmaster Connie.

42. In 2013, she played Apple's mother in the independent film Gimme Shelter.

43. In 2015, she played Claire Temple in the TV series Daredevil, a role which she reprised in Jessica Jones. Dawson's likeness was also used in the Jessica Jones tie-in comic as her character on both shows.

44. Dawson dated former Sex and the City star Jason Lewis for two years.

45. She started dating director Danny Boyle in 2012, after having been cast in his 2013 film Trance. The couple split in March 2013.

46. Dawson is also a self-professed Trekkie who mentioned both her and her brother's love of Star Trek in an interview with Conan O'Brien, and also demonstrating her knowledge of several words of Klingon.

47. Dawson is involved with the Lower East Side Girls Club and supports other charities such as environmental group Global Cool, the ONE Campaign, Operation USA, Oxfam, Amnesty International, the International Rescue Committee, Voto Latino, and Stay Close.org, a poster and public service ad campaign for PFLAG where she is featured with her uncle Frank Jump.

48. In October 2008, Dawson became a spokeswoman for TripAdvisor.com's philanthropy program, More Than Footprints, Conservation International, Doctors Without Borders, National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy, and Save The Children.

49. Also in October 2008, she lent her voice to the RESPECT! Campaign, a movement aimed at preventing domestic violence. She recorded a voice message for the Giverespect.org Web site stressing the importance of respect in helping stop domestic violence.

50. In 2012 Dawson partnered with SodaStream International in launching the first annual Unbottle the World Day, a campaign conceived in an effort to raise awareness to the impact of cans and plastic bottles on the environment.