Celebrity crush: Rosario Dawson

Today's entry features an actress who is a little higher in profile than a lot of others I have profiled, but not quite as prominent as a Natalie Portman or Anne Hathaway.

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Name: Rosario Dawson (images -- some NSFW | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: New York City, according to her Wikipedia profile. She's of Puerto Rican, Afro-Cuban, and Tainan (Caribbean) descent on her mom's side; Wikipedia doesn't elaborate on her dad's ancestry.
Best Known For: Being the go-to gorgeous ethnic woman in a variety of films and generally kicking ass wherever she appears. She co-starred in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, played Dante's love interest in Clerks II, appeared alongside fellow celebrity crush Rachael Leigh Cook in Josie and the Pussycats, and appeared in the film version of Rent. Additionally, she's appeared in a number of public service-oriented documentaries and participated in a lot of activism.

Humble Beginnings: She appeared on Sesame Street as a small child and grew up not so affluent in New York -- her 21-year-old mom broke into an abandoned building on Manhattan's lower East Side and fixed it up with her husband (Dawson's stepfather) to turn it into a livable squat.
Obligatory Edgy Stuff: Dawson's first film credit was in the indie film Kids, which I'm not including because a.) I'm not sure she was 18 when it was filmed or released and b.) it was borderline child pornography even if she was. If the writer, director, and people who greenlit that film all died in meteor strikes, it would be a gift to the world. On a brighter note, she's participated in stage productions of The Vagina Monologues and may have been the one non-journalist and non-protester to attend both the Democratic and Republican conventions in 2008.

With Grindhouse star Rose McGowan, and another
reason to want to ban guns ... or at least ammo.

The Courteney Cox Factor: She appeared in the video for "Out of Control" by the Chemical Brothers.
Not the Courteney Cox Factor: Dawson has also done some recording work. She added a voiceover to a Prince remake of his own song "1999," did similar duties on the OutKast album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, and more recently sang on the Kasabian album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. (The particular songs are linked below.)
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: She's proven herself a talented and versatile actress in a variety of genres -- from the Tarantino action film Death Proof to the musical Rent and playing the straight woman to Kevin Smith's usual band of idiots in Clerks II. And she's one of the world's hottest geeks, a long-time comic book fan who co-created the indie comic Occult Crimes Taskforce.

TV and Web series credits: Saturday Night Live: Jan. 17, 2009 (Amazon | iTunes) * Gemini Division (Wikipedia entry) * Afterworld (Wikipedia entry)
Comic books: Occult Crimes Taskforce (co-creator) (Amazon)
Musical work: "West Ryder Silver Bullet" by Kasabian (Amazon | iTunes) * "She Lives in My Lap" by OutKast (Amazon | iTunes) * 1999: The New Master EP by Prince (Amazon | iTunes) * Rent motion picture soundtrack (Amazon | iTunes)
Music video: "Out of Control" by Chemical Brothers (Amazon | iTunes)

Voice work: SpongeBob SquarePants: Truth or Square (Amazon | iTunes) * The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (animated) (Amazon | iTunes) * Wonder Woman (2009, animated) (Amazon | iTunes) * Robot Chicken, season 3: "More Blood, More Chocolate" (Amazon | iTunes) * Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (video game) (Amazon)
Documentary appearances: The People Speak (Amazon | iTunes) * Un-Broke: What You Need to Know About Money (Amazon | iTunes) * The Official (2009) Inaugural Celebration (Amazon | iTunes) * V-Day - Until the Violence Stops (Amazon | iTunes)
Film and TV-movie credits: Ten Year (Amazon | iTunes) * Awake (Amazon | iTunes) * Zookeeper (Amazon | iTunes) * Girl Walks Into a Bar (Amazon | iTunes) * Unstoppable (Amazon | iTunes) * Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (Amazon | iTunes) * Killshot (Amazon | iTunes) * Seven Pounds (Amazon | iTunes) * Eagle Eye (Amazon | iTunes) * Explicit Ills (Amazon | iTunes) * Descent (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * Grindhouse: Death Proof (Amazon | iTunes) * A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (Amazon | iTunes) * Clerks II (Amazon | iTunes) * Rent (Amazon | iTunes) * Little Black Dress (Amazon | iTunes) * The Devil's Rejects (scenes deleted but on DVD bonus materials) (Amazon) * Sin City (Amazon | iTunes) * This Revolution (Amazon | iTunes) * Alexander (Amazon | iTunes) * The Rundown (Amazon | iTunes) * Shattered Glass (Amazon | iTunes) * This Girl's Life (Amazon | iTunes) * Love in the Time of Money (Amazon | iTunes) * The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest (Amazon | iTunes) * 25th Hour (Amazon | iTunes) * The Adventures of Pluto Nash (Amazon | iTunes) * Men in Black II (Amazon | iTunes) * Ash Wednesday (Amazon | iTunes) * Chelsea Walls (Amazon | iTunes) * Trigger Happy (Amazon | iTunes) * Sidewalks of New York (Amazon | iTunes) * Josie and the Pussycats (Amazon | iTunes) * King of the Jungle (Amazon | iTunes) * Down to You (Amazon | iTunes) * Light It Up (Amazon | iTunes) * Side Streets (Amazon | iTunes) * He Got Game (Amazon | iTunes) * Girls' Night Out (Amazon | iTunes)