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Rosa Blasi Profile |
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Birth Date: December 19, 1972
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Birth Place: Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Birth Name: Rosa Blasi
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Height: 5'3"
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Biography |
Rosa Blasi's cheerful demeanor can be ascribed to the
festive time of her birth: December 19, 1972. While growing
up in Chicago, Illinois, Rosa was always a tease and
competed for the attention of the boys when most girls were
playing with their Barbie dolls.
At age 8, Rosa got her first taste of the stage, and
couldn't get enough of it. With more than 40 stage
productions under her belt -- many with the highly-regarded
Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago, as well as Second City --
Rosa was getting the kind of attention she craved. An
accomplished singer, Rosa has also dabbled in musicals and
even toured with Kenny Rogers.
The stage was great for Rosa Blasi, but she yearned for an
even bigger audience. That's where TV came in. She landed a
recurring role on the long-running soap opera The Bold and
the Beautiful, and did guest appearances on TV's High Tide.
In 1997, she did a guest stint on Married... with Children
and Lost on Earth, but more importantly, she joined the cast
of the UPN sitcom, Hitz.
But it wasn't easy for Rosa. As an ethnic woman, she had to
compete with the All-American women that fit the Hollywood
mold. Despite her candor, charm and acting flair, she was
getting rejected for roles, and therefore considered dying
her hair blonde and changing her name to Ren.
Luckily, the Ricky Martin era was just around the corner.
There was J.Lo. There was Enrique Iglesias. It was the Latin
explosion and suddenly, this very large and overlooked
minority came into the spotlight. And so did Rosa.
Because she was so affable and versatile, casting directors
called her to appear on TV shows like Frasier, Becker,
Caroline in the City, Beverly Hills, 90210, and The Drew
Carey Show, from 1998 to 1999.
Rosa was even a hit when it came to being herself. Bill
Maher featured her as a regular in his tragically defunct
Politically Incorrect, and she's been a guest on The Late
Late Show with Craig Kilborn, Love Line, Hollywood Squares,
and The Other Half.
Rosa Blasi landed a role in the made-for-TV movie Noriega:
God's Favorite (2000), which was shot in the Philippines.
While the movie failed to draw praise, Rosa's performance as
the Panama dictator's mistress did, and led to her getting a
contract in a new series that would become the highest-rated
cable TV drama (her nearly nude scene surely had nothing to
do with it...),
Strong Medicine, which airs on the Lifetime cable network,
was a tour de force that broke the standard TV formula.
In its fourth season, Strong Medicine still drew a crowd --
even males. Since its debut in 2000, she's made time to
appear in more movies. In addition to roles in
under-the-radar productions like Lesser of Three Evils and
Making Changes, Rosa hit the big screen in 2004, in the
blockbuster The Grudge, a remake of a Japanese thriller also
starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Rosa Blasi has been married to New York Giants fullback Jim
Finn since February 2004. She enjoys talking about
relationships and female genitalia in her interviews, and in
traveling productions of The Vagina Monologues (in which she
starred). |
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Other
Information |
Speaks fluent Italian and is a classically trained mezzo
soprano.
Her ethnic background is Puerto Rican, Italian, and Irish.
Has the same birth date as Alyssa Milano
Close friends with actor Sean Hayes, who attended her
wedding on February 14, 2004
Married Giants Fullback Jim Finn on February 14, 2004 in
Maui
Expecting first child with husband Jim, due in October 2006.
Is close friends with actress Lisa Vidal |
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