Nadine Velazquez Any fan of Jason Lee’s hit NBC karma comedy (“karmedy,” let’s call it)—My Name is Earl—will recognize the face of the beautiful American-Puerto Rican actress Nadine Velazquez (even if they didn’t know the name), who plays one of the show’s main characters, Catalina Aruca. Velazquez, however, has also acted elsewhere and in some circles is more well-known as a model than an actress. Although she was born in Chicago, Illinois (on November 20, 1978), Nadine Velazquez is actually Puerto Rican. After high school, she pursued and graduated from a B.A. in marketing. She began acting in 2003, taking on a role as an extra (an “attractive woman at Conga Club,” to be exact) in the film Chasing Papi, starring Roselyn Sanchez, Sofia Vergara, Jaci Velasquez, Eduardo Verastegui, and Freddy Rodriguez, and also landing the recurring role of Anna for six episodes in the campy soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful. In 2004, she took supporting roles in the made-for-T.V. movie The Last Ride as well as in the film Blast!, co-starring Eddie Griffin, Vinnie Jones, and Breckin Meyer. A year later she was cast as Maricruz Delgado on the hit FOX series Prison Break, which stars Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell, but dropped that to instead play Catalina on My Name is Earl, starring alongside Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee, Jaime Pressly, and Eddie Steeples. Velazquez’s latest projects include appearances in the films Husband for Hire (a T.V. movie in which she starred as Lola opposite Mario Lopez and Tempestt Bledsoe); War, with Jet Li and Jason Statham; and A Day in the Life, alongside Omar Epps, Michael Rapaport, Mekhi Phifer, and Tony Curran, all in 2007.
Velazquez is also a known model, having appeared on Stuff magazine’s January 2006 cover, and appearing in Maxim’s “Hot 100” list for that year (number 39). But sorry, hungry-for-babes dudes, this lovely lady is taken—for now. Velazquez is married (for now, anyway) to Marc Provissiero, a talent agent. |
