Early life

Dawson was born in New York City. Her mother, Isabel Celeste, is a writer and singer who is of Puerto Rican and Cuban ancestry. Isabel was sixteen years old when Rosario was born; she never married Rosario's biological father, Patrick C. Harris. When Rosario was one year old, her mother married Greg Dawson, a construction worker, who "loved and raised Rosario as his own daughter". Dawson stated, "He's always been my dad". Dawson has a half-brother, Clay, who is four years younger. Isabel and Greg divorced in 2001. Dawson lived in Garland, Texas for a year and went to Garland High School.

At age 21, Isabel moved the family into an abandoned building, a squat on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where she and her husband renovated an apartment and installed the plumbing and electrical wiring for the building, creating affordable housing where Rosario and Clay would grow up. Dawson has cited this part of her history when explaining how she learned that, "If you wanted something better, you had to do it all yourself."

Career

As a child, Dawson made a brief appearance on Sesame Street. At the age of 15, she was subsequently discovered on her front porch step by photographer Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, where Korine lauded her as being perfect for a part he had written in his screenplay that would become the controversial 1995 film Kids. She went on to star in varied roles, ranging from independent films to big budget blockbusters including Rent, He Got Game, and Men in Black II.

In 1999, Dawson teamed up with Prince for the re-release of his 1980s hit "1999". The new remixed version featured the actress in an introductory voice over, offering commentary on the state of the world in the year before the new millennium. The same year, she appeared in The Chemical Brothers' video for the song "Out of Control" from the album Surrender. She is also featured on the track "She Lives In My Lap" from the second disc of the OutKast album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, in which she speaks the intro and a brief interlude towards the end. In 2001, she appeared in the movie, Josie and the Pussycats.

Dawson starred as Naturelle Rivera, the love interest of a convicted drug dealer played by Edward Norton, in the 2002 Spike Lee film drama, 25th Hour. In the 2004 Oliver Stone film Alexander, she played the bride of Alexander the Great. In the autumn of 2005, Dawson appeared on stage as Julia in the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park" revival of Two Gentlemen of Verona. It was her first appearance on stage.

In the film adaptation of the popular musical Rent in 2005, she played the exotic dancer Mimi Marquez, replacing Daphne Rubin-Vega, who was pregnant and unable to play the part. She also appeared in the adaptation of the graphic novel Sin City, co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, portraying Gail, a prostitute-dominatrix. Also in that year, she appeared in a graphically violent scene in the Rob Zombie film The Devil's Rejects. Though the scene was cut from the final film, it is available in the deleted scenes on the DVD release.

She starred as Becky in 2006's Clerks II, and mentioned in Back to the Well, the making-of documentary, that the donkey show sequence was what made her decide to take the role. In May of the same year, Dawson, an avid comic book fan, co-created the comic book miniseries Occult Crimes Taskforce. She was at the 2007 Comic-Con to promote the comic. She co-starred with former Rent alum Tracie Thoms in the Quentin Tarantino throwback movie Death Proof in 2007, part of the Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double feature Grindhouse. She teamed up with friend Talia Lugacy, whom she met at the Lee Strasberg Academy, to produce and star in Descent. On July 7, 2007, Dawson presented at the American leg of Live Earth.

In 2008, Dawson starred with Will Smith in Seven Pounds and in Eagle Eye, produced by Steven Spielberg. Beginning in August, she starred in Gemini Division, an online TV series. In the computer animated series Afterworld she voiced the character Officer Delondre Baines. On January 17, 2009, Dawson hosted Saturday Night Live. Later in the year, she voiced Artemis of Bana-Mighdall in the animated film Wonder Woman.

In 2009, Dawson performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. In 2009, Dawson also voiced the character of Velvet Von Black in Rob Zombie's animated feature, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. For the Kasabian album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, she is featured singing on the track "West Ryder Silver Bullet".

In 2010, she starred in the movies Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, as Persephone, and Unstoppable, as railway yardmaster Connie. In 2013, she played Apple's mother in the independent film Gimme Shelter. The following year, she reprised her role as Gail in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. In 2015, she played Claire Temple in the TV series Daredevil, a role which she reprised in Jessica Jones. Dawson's likeness was also used in the Jessica Jones tie-in comic as her character on both shows.

Personal life

Dawson dated former Sex and the City star Jason Lewis for two years. They lived together in Los Angeles until they separated in November 2006. She started dating director Danny Boyle in 2012, after having been cast in his 2013 film Trance. The couple split in March 2013.

Dawson is also a self-professed Trekkie who mentioned both her and her brother's love of Star Trek in an interview with Conan O'Brien, and also demonstrating her knowledge of several words of Klingon.

Politics

Dawson was once arrested in 2004 while protesting then president George W. Bush.

Dawson endorsed Barack Obama for re-election in 2012, and Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 Democratic Party primaries.

On April 15, 2016, Dawson was among the protesters arrested during Democracy Spring in Washington, D.C..

Philanthropy

Dawson is involved with the Lower East Side Girls Club and supports other charities such as environmental group Global Cool, the ONE Campaign, Operation USA, Oxfam, Amnesty International, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, the International Rescue Committee, Voto Latino, and Stay Close.org, a poster and public service ad campaign for PFLAG where she is featured with her uncle Frank Jump. She has participated in the Vagina Monologues (she refers to her vagina as "The General") and serves on the board for V-Day, a global non-profit movement that raises funds for women's anti-violence groups through benefits of this play.

In October 2008, Dawson became a spokeswoman for TripAdvisor.com's philanthropy program, More Than Footprints, Conservation International, Doctors Without Borders, National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy, and Save The Children. Also in October 2008, she lent her voice to the RESPECT! Campaign, a movement aimed at preventing domestic violence. She recorded a voice message for the Giverespect.org Web site stressing the importance of respect in helping stop domestic violence. In 2012 Dawson partnered with SodaStream International in launching the first annual Unbottle the World Day, a campaign conceived in an effort to raise awareness to the impact of cans and plastic bottles on the environment.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Kids	Ruby
1997	Girls' Night Out	Girl	Short film
1998	He Got Game	Lala Bonilla
1998	Side Streets	Marisol Hidalgo
1999	Light It Up	Stephanie Williams
2000	Down to You	Lana
2000	King of the Jungle	Veronica
2001	Josie and the Pussycats	Valerie Brown
2001	Sidewalks of New York	Maria Tedesko
2001	Trigger Happy	Dee
2001	Chelsea Walls	Audrey
2002	Ash Wednesday	Grace Quinonez
2002	First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest, TheThe First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest	Alisa
2002	Men in Black II	Laura Vasquez
2002	Adventures of Pluto Nash, TheThe Adventures of Pluto Nash	Dina Lake
2002	Love in the Time of Money	Anna
2002	25th Hour	Naturelle Riviera
2003	V-Day: Until the Violence Stops	Herself	Documentary film
2003	This Girl's Life	Martine
2003	Shattered Glass	Andy Fox
2003	Rundown, TheThe Rundown	Mariana
2004	Alexander	Roxana
2005	This Revolution	Tina Santiago
2005	Sin City	Gail
2005	Little Black Dress	Haley	Short film
2005	Rent	Mimi Marquez
2006	Clerks II	Rebecca "Becky" Scott
2006	Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, AA Guide to Recognizing Your Saints	Laurie
2007	Death Proof	Abernathy Ross
2007	Descent	Maya	Also producer, direct-to-VOD
2008	Explicit Ills	Babo's Mom
2008	Eagle Eye	Zoe Perez
2008	Killshot	Donna
2008	Seven Pounds	Emily Posa
2009	Wonder Woman	Artemis (voice)	Direct-to-VOD
2009	Haunted World of El Superbeasto, TheThe Haunted World of El Superbeasto	Velvet Von Black (voice)
2009	People Speak, TheThe People Speak	Herself	Documentary film
2010	Awake	Robin	Short film
2010	Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief	Persephone
2010	Unstoppable	Connie Hooper
2011	Miss Representation	Herself	Documentary film
2011	Girl Walks into a Bar	June	Direct-to-YouTube
2011	Zookeeper	Kate
2011	10 Years	Mary
2012	Fire with Fire	Talia Durham	Direct-to-VOD
2012	Hotel Noir	Sevilla, the Maid	Direct-to-VOD
2013	Trance	Elizabeth Lamb
2013	Gimme Shelter	June Bailey
2013	César Chávez	Dolores Huerta
2013	Parts per Billion	Mia	Direct-to-VOD
2013	Raze	Rachel	Direct-to-VOD
2014	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	Gail
2014	Captive, TheThe Captive	Nicole	Direct-to-VOD
2014	Top Five	Chelsea Brown
2015	Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast	Nyx (voice)
2015	Justice League: Throne of Atlantis	Wonder Woman (voice)	Direct-to-VOD
2015	Puerto Ricans in Paris	Vanessa
2016	Justice League vs. Teen Titans	Wonder Woman (voice)	Direct-to-VOD
2016	Ratchet & Clank	Elaris (voice)
2016	Henchmen	(voice)	Filming
2016	Unforgettable	Julia Banks	Filming
2017	Lego Batman Movie, TheThe Lego Batman Movie	Batgirl (voice)	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Punk'd	Herself	Season 1, episode 8
2007	Robot Chicken	Various (voice)	Episode: "More Blood, More Chocolate"
2008	Gemini Division	Anna Diaz	Web series; 50 episodes; also executive producer
2009	Saturday Night Live	Herself	Episode: "Rosario Dawson/Fleet Foxes"
2009	SpongeBob SquarePants	Herself	Episode: "Truth or Square"
2011	Five	Lili	Television film
2015-present	Daredevil	Claire Temple	9 episodes
2015	Jessica Jones	Claire Temple	Episode: "AKA Smile"
2016	Luke Cage	Claire Temple	Guest star

Video games

Year	Title	Voice Role
2006	Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure	Tina
2012	Syndicate	Lily Drawl
2016	Ratchet & Clank	Elaris

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Rosario Dawson Charities

Rosario Dawson supports the following charitable cause: Environment.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]