About Idina Menzel
Idina Kim Menzel is an American actress and singer. Particularly recognized for her work in musicals on Broadway, she has been nicknamed the "Queen of Broadway" for her commanding stage presence, powerful mezzo-soprano, and reputation as one of the most influential stage actors of her generation. Having achieved mainstream success across stage, screen, and music, her accolades include an American Music Award, a Billboard Music Award, a Daytime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for three Drama League Awards, and four Drama Desk Awards. In 2019, Menzel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was named a Disney Legend in 2022.
Menzel rose to prominence as a stage actress in 1996, making her Broadway debut as Maureen Johnson in the rock musical Rent, which earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. In 2003, she originated the role of Elphaba in the musical Wicked on Broadway, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. The popularity of the show and her signature song "Defying Gravity" earned her a devoted musical theatre following. After leaving the show in 2005, she reprised the role in the musical's original West End production in 2006, becoming the highest-paid actress in West End theatre history. In 2014, Menzel returned to Broadway as Elizabeth Vaughan in the musical If/Then, for which she received a third Tony Award nomination.
Menzel began transitioning into film and television in the early 2000s. After reprising her Rent role in the musical's 2005 film adaptation, she was cast as Nancy Tremaine in Disney's musical fantasy film Enchanted , eventually returning to the role in its 2022 sequel. She played recurring character Shelby Corcoran on the musical television series Glee from 2010 to 2013. Since 2013, Menzel has voiced Elsa in Disney's Frozen franchise, which includes two of the highest-grossing animated films of all-time. "Let It Go", a song she recorded for the first film, peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first Tony Award-winning actor to earn a top-10 song on the chart, and cementing her status as a crossover musical artist. Menzel has since pursued supporting roles in larger film projects, including Uncut Gems , Cinderella , and You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah .
As a recording artist and songwriter, Menzel has released seven studio albums, including I Stand and Holiday Wishes ; the latter peaked at number six on the Billboard 200, becoming her highest-charting studio album to-date.
Idina Kim Mentzel was born on May 30, 1971, in Manhattan. She grew up in New Jersey until about age three; her family moved to Syosset, New York on Long Island. Her parents are Stuart Mentzel, a pajama salesman, and Helene Goldberg, a therapist. She has a younger sister named Cara. Idina Menzel is Jewish and her grandparents emigrated from Russia. Menzel attended J. Irving Baylis Elementary School in Plainview, New York as well as H. B. Thompson Middle School in Syosset, and Syosset High School.
When Menzel was 15 years old, her parents divorced and she began working as a wedding and bar/bat mitzvah singer, a job that she held while a student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama there in 1992. Idina changed the spelling of her surname to "Menzel" to better reflect the pronunciation that the Mentzel family had adopted in the United States. She was friends with actor Adam Pascal before they worked together in Rent.
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