Rosario Dawson

Born May 9, 1979, in New York City, Rosario Dawson was hanging out on her front stoop when director Larry Clark spotted her and asked her to be in his controversial movie Kids (1995). The rest, as they say, is history: Dawson's career has blossomed ever since, bolstered by her formal training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

After her debut in Kids, Dawson appeared in director Spike Lee's He Got Game and the episodic "New York life" comedy Side Streets, both from 1998. With the dawn of the 21st century, the young actress began to land more mature roles, including that of an unbridled stoner in Down to You (2000) and heroine Laura Vasquez in Men in Black II (2002).

Subsequent films for Dawson include the 2005 thriller Sin City, the musical Rent (in which she plays drug-addicted exotic dancer Mimi Marquez) and Clerks II (2006).

Filmography