Early life and education

Vidal was born and raised in Whitestone, an area in Queens, New York, the daughter of Manny Vidal, a tax consultant and businessman, and his wife Josie, a secretary, both of Puerto Rican ancestry. She attended the Performing Arts School Of New York. When she was 17 she joined a girl group called Gemstone (along with Jade Villalon and Crystal Grant). Vidal later moved to Orlando, Florida, to proceed with the filming of Taina. Her sisters Lisa, and Tanya are also actors and have appeared on TV and in theatre; she also has a brother, Christian.

Career

Acting

Vidal's acting career started when one of her teachers told her there was an audition for the movie Life with Mikey (1993), starring Michael J. Fox. She auditioned and got the part of "Angie Vega", and was therefore the first Puerto Rican child actress to play a lead in an American film. Since then, Vidal has appeared in numerous films and television series, with her most notable role being Taina Maria Morales in the Nickelodeon show Taina. The sitcom was at first successful and ran for two seasons until its cancellation in the summer of 2002 because of the consensus that Nickelodeon felt that it only appealed to girls.

The next year she played Maddie in the film Freaky Friday, alongside Lindsay Lohan. The same year, she starred in the short-lived ABC action TV series about police officers called 10-8: Officers on Duty until she suddenly left after two months on the show. Also in 2003 she guest starred in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch as Paris Fate. In 2006, she did an untitled sitcom pilot along with her sisters for ABC (which was executively produced by George Lopez). The show was not picked up but later that year she starred in the film See No Evil, along with having a brief stint on the hit sitcom Girlfriends. In recent times, she made cameo appearances in the movies I Think I Love My Wife, Mask of the Ninja, and the internet comedy short "Love Automatically", written by Mylinda Royer and directed by Allison Haislip. Most recently, Vidal played a supporting character in the film Magic Man, which was released in 2009.

Music

When Vidal was in the band Gemstone, she recorded songs with herself as well as bandmate Jade Villalon performing vocals. A few of these tracks would surface many years later on albums consisting of demoes, rare tracks, and special songs of Villalon's music project, Sweetbox. In 2002, she was briefly signed to MCA Records and in that time she was supposed to release her first single "Tropical" and her solo debut album White in the summer of 2002, but never did. That same year she provided guest vocals on the remix of Will Smith's summer hit "Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head)" from the Men in Black II soundtrack. She was a part of Lupe Fiasco's 1st & 15th Entertainment. She also recorded a track for the work out cd called Byou from Sabrina Bryan of the Cheetah Girls. The song she recorded was "Anything Is Possible". She also sang the song "Take Me Away" in the movie Freaky Friday.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Life with Mikey	Angie Vega
1995	Welcome to the Dollhouse	Cynthia
2000	Details	Maggie	Short film
2003	Chasing Papi	Festival Singer
2003	Freaky Friday	Maddie
2005	Mosquito, TheThe Mosquito	Tia
2006	See No Evil	Christine
2007	I Think I Love My Wife	Candy
2010	Magic Man	Elena

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Cosby Mysteries, TheThe Cosby Mysteries	Ramona Suarez	Episode: "Camouflage"
1995	Commish, TheThe Commish	Julianna Muldoon	Episode: "Off Broadway: Parts 1 & 2"
1997	F/X: The Series	Theresa	Episode: "Bad Influence"
1997-98	Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher	Sophia Del Bono	Main Role (Season 2); 21 episodes
1998	Brink!	Gabriella	TV movie
1999	Providence	Street Girl	Episode: "Saint Syd"
1999	Touched by an Angel	Ilena	Episode: "Hearts"
2001-02	Taina	Taina Maria Morales	Lead Role; 26 episodes
2003	Hotel	Gisel	TV movie
2003	Sabrina, the Teenage Witch	Fate Paris	Episode: "Romance Looming"
2003-04	10-8: Officers on Duty	Deputy Gabriela Lopez	Main Role; 14 episodes
2004	Beck and Call		TV short
2004	Second Time Around	Gabrielle Herrera	Episode: "Secrets" Episode: "A Kiss Is Still a Kiss"
2005	Clubhouse	Carmen	Episode: "Between First and Home"
2006	Girlfriends	Samantha Stephens	Episode: "Bad Blood" Episode: "Just Joan"
2007	ER	Elena Vega	Episode: "In a Different Light"
2008	Play or Be Played		TV movie
2008	Mask of the Ninja	Mercedes	TV movie
2009	Monk	Winona	Episode: "Mr. Monk Goes Camping"
2009-10	House	Sandy	Episodes: "Wilson", "Private Lives"
2010	The Deep End	Rachel Esposito	Episode: "Nothing Personal"
2010	In Plain Sight	Amber Whitman	Episode: "Son of Mann"
2010	Castle	Jamie Ruiz	Episode: "Almost Famous"
2011	Things We Do for Love		Episode: "Best Friend"
2011	Fairly Legal	Sofia Peña	Episode: "Coming Home"
2014	Stalker	Christina Richards	Episode: "Skin"
2015	Being Mary Jane	Lilly	Episode: "Reading the Signs"
2015	The Player	Mrs. Cruz	Episode: "A House Is Not a Home"
2015-06	Code Black	Gina Perrello	Recurring; 7 episodes
2016	Limitless	Lucy Church	2 episodes

Discography

Soundtracks

• 2002: Taina soundtrack
• 2003: Freaky Friday soundtrack
• 2006: Byou soundtrack

Awards and nominations

Year	Group	Award	Result	Film/Show
1994	Young Artist Award	Best Leading Role in a Motion Picture Comedy - Youth Actress	Won	Life with Mikey
		Most Promising New Youth Actress (special award)	Won
2002	ALMA Award	Outstanding Actress in a Television Series	Nominated	Taina

[ Source: Wikipedia ]