Rosie Pérez is an Academy Award-nominated American actress, dancer, choreographer and director. She is recognized for her nasal voice and thick Brooklyn accent. Pérez was born and raised in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick to Puerto Rican parents Lydia Perez (, a singer, and Ismael Serrano, a sailor employed in the merchant- marine. At the time of her birth, her mother was married to Ventura Perez, and had an affair with Serrano. She started her career in the late 1980s as a dancer on Soul Train and has choreographed music videos by Bobby Brown, Diana Ross LL Cool J and The Boys. She was the choreographer for the dancing group, the Fly Girls who were featured on every performance of In Living Color, a 1990s television variety series.

She was noticed in a dance club by Spike Lee in 1989, who hired her for her first major acting role in Do the Right Thing. She made her Broadway debut in Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. She had her third major role in the hit comedy White Men Can't Jump co-starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. She also co-starred opposite Jeff Bridgesin Peter Weir's Fearless (for which she was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress). In 1997 she starred in Perdita Durango, a controversial film in which many scenes of excessive violence, sex and nudity were edited out of the version released in the United States, but remained intact in the version released throughout Latin America.

She is a Puerto Rican activist who fights for Puerto Rican rights from America. Her film Yo Soy Boricua! Pa' Que Tú Lo Sepas! (I'm Puerto Rican, Just So You Know!) is about this fight. She starred in and directed the Spanish AIDS PSA campaign "Join the Fight" for Cable Positive and Kismet Films. The campaign featured actor Wilmer Valderrama BET's Julissa Bermudez, Telenovela actor Erick Elias, singer/actress Lorena Rojas, 2006-2007 Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera and actress Judy Marte. She has more recently played corrupt female police officer Carol Brazier in the Judd Apatow-produced film Pineapple Express co-starring Seth Rogenand James Franco