Michelle Rodriguez by Hector Perez for Author Magazine January 2021

Mayte Michelle Rodriguez (born July 12, 1978) is an American actress and screenwriter.

Rodriguez began her career in 2000, playing a troubled boxer in the independent sports drama film Girlfight (2000), where she won the Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award for Best Debut Performance. Rodriguez then began starring as Letty Ortiz in the Fast & Furious franchise, and also portrayed Rain Ocampo in the Resident Evil franchise. She also appeared in the commercially successful crime thriller S.W.A.T. (2003), and later starred in James Cameron's science fiction epic Avatar (2009) and in the action film Battle: Los Angeles (2011).

After portraying Minerva Mirabal in the biopic Trópico de Sangre (2010), Rodriguez headlined the exploitation films Machete (2010) and Machete Kills (2013), and then starred in the computer animated comedy films Turbo (2013) and Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017), while her performance in the heist film Widows (2018) was critically praised.

Outside of film, Rodriguez played Ana Lucia Cortez in the drama television series Lost (2005–2006; 2009–2010), and voiced Liz Ricarro in the English-language translation of the anime Immortal Grand Prix (2005–2006). She also reprised her roles in video game spin-offs of Avatar and Fast & Furious, and also appeared in True Crime: Streets of LA (2003), Driver 3 (2004), and the critically acclaimed Halo 2 (2004) and Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012).