Rosa María Perez (born September 6, 1964) is an American actress, community activist, talk show host, author, dancer and choreographer. Her film breakthrough was in Spike Lee\'s Do the Right Thing (1989), which she followed with White Men Can\'t Jump (1992). Among many honors, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Fearless (1993). She was also nominated for three Emmy Awards for her work as a choreographer on In Living Color. In 2007, Perez starred on Broadway as Googie Gomez in a revival of The Ritz, and she was nominated for an Indie Spirit Award for her performance in The Take. Perez was a regular host on The View and in 2015 she returned to Broadway to star in Fish in the Dark, a play written by Larry David.\n', '

Perez was born in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, to mother Lydia Perez and Ismael Serrano, a merchant marine seaman. Her parents, who were both from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, were married to other people when they met. She was born at the now-closed Greenpoint Hospital in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. Perez became a ward of the state when her mother took her from an aunt, who had been raising her. She was transferred to a group foster home at age three and lived in foster care in New York and Peekskill until age eight, and was still legally considered a ward of the State of New York until age 12. Her mother and aunt frequently visited, and her father made an unsuccessful custody bid at one point. Perez has five brothers and sisters from her mother\'s first marriage to Ventura Perez but also has additional half-brothers and half-sisters (a total of 10 children). These life problems left Perez with a speech impediment. She eventually moved in with paternal aunt, Ana Dominga Otero Serrano-Roque, and attended Grover Cleveland High School, in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens. Her mother died of AIDS-related complications in 1999. Perez is of Puerto Rican descent and had a strict Catholic upbringing, which she has credited to the influence of the nuns during her childhood. Perez is often identified as a Nuyorican as a result of her upbringing as a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent.\n', '

At 19 years old, Perez started her career in the early 1980s, as a dancer on Soul Train. As a college student in Los Angeles, majoring in bio-chemistry, she said she would relieve stress by going to nightclubs for ladies\' night. A talent scout from Soul Train asked Perez to appear on the show. She was not a professional dancer, but loved it so much she dropped out of school. In 1988, when she was 24 years old, Perez was noticed at the dance club Funky Reggae by Spike Lee, who hired her for her first major acting role in Do the Right Thing.\n', '

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