Michelle Rodriguez

After Michelle Rodriguez broke off an engagement with a Muslim boyfriend in 2000, she had been in relationships with actors Olivier Martinez, Vin Diesel, and Zac Efron, and Cara Delevingne, a model.

In an interview, she described herself as bisexual. “I fall under the B category of LGBT,” she said.

In March 2002, she was arrested for assaulting her roommate, but later the charges were dropped, as the roommate didn’t want to take up the allegations in court.

Mayte Michelle Rodriguez was born on July 12, 1978, in San Antonio, Texas. Her mother Carmen Milady Rodriguez is a Dominican and her father Rafael Rodriguez, who served in the US Army, was a Puerto Rican. She has ten siblings and half-siblings.

When she was eight, she shifted to the Dominican Republic with her mother, and stayed there till she was 11. Her maternal grandmother raised her for some time. The elderly lady was quite religious and raised Michelle as a Jehovah's Witness. Michelle later abandoned the faith.

From the ages 12 to 17, she lived in Puerto Rico, after which she finally settled in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Much later in life, at a television program ‘Finding Your Roots’ a DNA test was conducted on her, according to which her ancestry is 72.4% European, 21.3% African, and 6.3% Native American. She explained that her father had a light complexion and her mother had a dark complexion, giving rise to some racial conflicts in the family.

A wild teenager, she was expelled from five schools due to her unruly behavior. She first dropped out of high school mid-way, but later she earned her GED.

Michelle Rodriguez bagged her first role in a low-budget film ‘Girlfight’ in 2000 after beating 350 other applicants. She attended this audition after seeing an ad calling for an audition. She portrayed Diana Guzman, an arrogant teen, who diverts her anger by training to become a boxer.

She played many important roles in successful movies over the ensuing years. One of them was the action crime film ‘The Fast and the Furious’ in 2001. Her portrayal of Letty was highly appreciated.

In the science fiction action horror film ‘Resident Evil’ in 2002, she played the role of Rain Ocampo. Next, she did ‘Blue Crush’ a sports film in 2002, and ‘S.W.A.T’, a 2003 American action crime thriller film.

In 2004, she voiced-over in the video game ‘Halo 2’, playing a marine. She also lent her voice to Liz Ricarro in the Cartoon Network series ‘IGPX’.

Next, she did ‘Lost’, a television series from 2005 to 2006. She appeared in the second season of the show, in which she played a tough cop, Ana Lucia Cortez. She also did a cameo in the second episode of the fifth season called ‘The Lie’, in 2009. She appeared in another episode of the show called ‘What They Died For’ in 2010 as well.

Her debut film ‘Girlfight’ in 2000 became her first successful movie which received several awards and nominations. ‘Avatar’, is her most successful film to date. Her movie ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ collected over US$200 million worldwide. In 2015, ‘Furious 7’ collected over $1.5 billion worldwide. ‘The Fate of the Furious’ received a record-breaking collection on the opening day itself.