All about Michaela Jae Rodriguez

1
All about Michaela Jae Rodriguez
2
Who Is Michaela Jae Rodriguez?

• Michaela Jae Rodriguez played Angel in an
  Off-Broadway revival of Rent in 2011 and 2012.
  She did this because she loves the arts. This
  role played a part in her decision to undergo a
  medical transition. Rodriguez was worried that
  becoming a woman would hurt her career, but she
  continued to be cast in shows. In the TV show
  Pose, she played Blanca, a trans woman who was
  part of the New York City ballroom scene in the
  1980s and 1990s (2018-21).

3
Early Years

• Rodriguez was born in Newark, NJ, on January 7,
  1991. Rodriguezs mother is black, and her father
  is half Puerto Rican and half black. She used to
  go by Mj in honour of Spider-Mary Mans Jane
  Watson, but she said in November 2021 that she
  would now go by her full name to draw attention
  to the actress behind the nickname. Rodriguez,
  who grew up in Newark, has said, As a young
  Afro-Latina, I knew there would be some steep
  hills for me to climb.

4
Interest in Arts

• Rodriguez has always been interested in the arts.
  He says, When I was little, all I could think
  about was being on a stage, whether it was a live
  stage or a set stage. Her mother helped her
  daughter by putting her in programs like the
  Summer Youth Performance Workshop at the New
  Jersey Performing Arts Center.

5
School Life

• Rodriguez joined a ballroom house in New York
  City when he was 14 years old. Rodriguez was a
  student at Newark Arts High School at the time (a
  similar experience to her character in Pose). She
  would sometimes sneak out to go. Rodriguez was
  accepted and gained confidence in the ballroom
  community, where people like me lived without
  apologies. She has said, I wouldnt be the
  person I am today if that scene hadnt happened.

6
Clive Barnes Award

• Rodriguez had the chance to try out for an
  Off-Broadway revival of Rent while he was a
  student at Bostons Berklee College of Music. She
  got the part of Angel, and in 2011, she joined
  the cast. Rodriguez gave the role her own spin.
  Instead of playing Angel as a drag queen, she
  thought of her as a trans woman. She got a lot of
  honour for her performance, including the Clive
  Barnes Award for young performers.
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7
Career

• In addition to being a big step in Rodriguezs
  career, playing Angel made him want to change his
  body. She knew she was a girl when she was seven,
  but being in Rent was one of the most important
  moments of her life. It was like the beginning of
  her transition. Rodriguez said in 2018 that the
  role let me live out loud and see the woman I
  was on stage.

8
Assistant Director

• After an unsuccessful audition for Ryan Murphys
  show Glee, Pose let Rodriguez work with him on
  the show. It likewise united her back with Billy
  Porter, who played Pray Tell in Pose and was the
  assistant director of Rodriguezs Off-Broadway
  production of Rent, and Indya Moore, who had been
  in Saturday Church with Rodriguez.

9
Success in a Job

• When Pose premiered in 2018, it was the first
  scripted TV show to have the most transgender
  actors as series regulars. The pose was about gay
  and transgender people of colour in the New York
  City ballroom scene at the end of the 1980s and
  the beginning of the 1990s when HIV and AIDS were
  destroying communities. Rodriguez was the heart
  of the show as Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista, the
  HIV-positive mother in the House of Evangelista.
  In 2019, she was in the second season of Pose,
  and in 2021, she was in the third and final
  season.

10
Personal Effect

• Rodriguez said in 2019 that Blanca and Pose had a
  personal effect on her Its changed my life in
  terms of awareness, being seen and heard, and,
  most importantly, being taken seriously as an
  actress. But she also knows how important the
  show has been to people who watch it Pose has
  brought a lot of trans women of colour to the
  forefront and shown that our lives are about much
  more than the stigma. It shows that our lives
  have different parts.

11
Popularity

• Rodriguezs popularity grew when she was on Pose.
  She has been to the Met Gala, sat in the front
  row at Fashion Week, been on the cover of
  magazines, become an Olay spokeswoman, and helped
  lead the 2019 Pride March in New York City with
  other Pose cast members. Rodriguez also gave the
  keynote speech at the fifth annual Diversity
  Summit at George Washington University

12
Women of the Year

• Rodriguez was the first transgender model to be
  on the cover of Latina magazine in November 2021.
  Rodriguez won a Golden Globe for her role in
  Pose in January 2022. She was the first
  transgender actress to do so. In March 2022, Time
  magazine named her one of the Women of the Year.