Christina Vidal

Christina Vidal is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in films such as Life with Mikey, Brink!, Freaky Friday, See No Evil & on Taina, Gina Perrello on Code Black, & Detective Valeria Chavez on the series adaptation of Training Day. She has also starred as Drea on Primo.

Early life and education

Vidal was born and raised in Whitestone, an area in Queens, New York City, the daughter of Manny Vidal, a tax consultant and businessman, and his wife Josie, a secretary, both of Puerto Rican ancestry.<ref>[1] Template:Webarchive</ref> She attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School.Template:Citation needed When she was 17 in 1998, 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 actresses and have appeared on TV and in theatre; she also has a brother, Christian.<ref>[2] Template:Webarchive</ref>

Career

Acting

Vidal's acting career began when one of her teachers told her there was an audition for the film Life with Mikey (1993), starring Canadian actor Michael J. Fox. She auditioned and got the part of "Angie Vega", becoming the first Puerto Rican child actress to play a lead in a US film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Since then, Vidal has appeared in feature films and television series. She portrayed Taina Maria Morales in the Nickelodeon sitcom Taina in 2001 and 2002. The series ran for two seasons with speculation that it would be renewed for more; according to Vidal, the reason for the show being cancelled was likely due to her recording deal with MCA.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Scripts for a third season and a made-for-television movie of the series were already written before Nickelodeon canceled the show.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The next year she played Maddie in the film Freaky Friday alongside Lindsay Lohan and 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 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 and also had a brief stint on the hit sitcom Girlfriends. More recently she has made cameo appearances in the films 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.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> 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 bandmates Jade Villalon and Crystal Celeste Grant performing vocals. A few of these tracks would surface many years later on albums consisting of demos, 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. She was also presented with the opportunity to be the lead singer for The Pussycat Dolls, however she was uninterested with the groups image.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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 film 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
	Freaky Friday	Maddie
2005	The Mosquito	Tia
2006	See No Evil	Christine
2007	I Think I Love My Wife	Candy
2010	Magic Man	Elena
2021	The Guilty	Sergeant Denise Wade
2025	Freakier Friday	Maddie	Post-production<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	The Cosby Mysteries	Ramona Suarez	Episode: "Camouflage"
1995	The 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"
	Touched by an Angel	Ilena	Episode: "Hearts"
2001–02	Taina	Taina Maria Morales	Lead Role; 26 episodes
2003	Hotel	Gisel	TV movie
	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
	Second Time Around	Gabrielle Herrera	Episode: "Secrets", "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
	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"
	In Plain Sight	Amber Whitman	Episode: "Son of Mann"
	Castle	Jamie Ruiz	Episode: "Almost Famous"
2011	Things We Do for Love		Episode: "Best Friend"
	Fairly Legal	Sofia Peña	Episode: "Coming Home"
2014	Stalker	Christina Richards	Episode: "Skin"
2015	Being Mary Jane	Lilly	Episode: "Reading the Signs"
	The Player	Mrs. Cruz	Episode: "A House Is Not a Home"
	Major Crimes	Carmen Tamayo	Episode: "Thick as Thieves"
2015–16	Code Black	Gina Perrello	Recurring role; 7 episodes
2016	Limitless	Lucy Church	2 episodes
	Blue Bloods	ADA Marta Avila	Blowback
2017	Training Day	Det. Valeria Chavez	Main role; 13 episodes
2018	Sneaky Pete	Valerie	The Reluctant Taxidermist
2019	Grand Hotel	Det. Ayala	4 episodes
2020	United We Fall	Jo Ryan	Main role
2021	The Shrink Next Door	Hannah	Recurring Role
2022	The Terminal List	Mac Wilson	Main Role
2023	Primo	Drea	Main role

Discography

Soundtracks

• 2002: Taina soundtrack
• 2003: Chasing Papi 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	Template:Won<ref name="yaa15">Template:Cite web</ref>	Life with Mikey
		Most Promising New Youth Actress (special award)	Template:Won<ref name="yaa15" />
2002	ALMA Award	Outstanding Actress in a Television Series	Template:Nom	Taina

See also

• List of Puerto Ricans

External links

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