Leslie Grace Martínez (born January 7, 1995) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. For her work as a singer she has received three

Latin Grammy Award The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been ...

nominations. She starred as Nina Rosario in Jon M. Chu's film adaptation ''

In the Heights ''In the Heights'' is a musical theatre, musical with concept, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a Book (musical theatre), book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story is set over the course of three days, involving characters in the larg ...

'' (2021).

Early life and education

Grace was born to Dominican parents on January 7, 1995, in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, a borough of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Her mother runs a hair salon in

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

. She was raised in

Davie, Florida Davie is a town in Broward County, Florida, United States, approximately north of Miami. The town's population was 110,320 at the 2020 census. Davie is a principal town of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,198,782. ...

and attended Indian Ridge Middle School and

Western High School Western High School may refer: Schools in the United States *Western High School (Anaheim, California) – Anaheim, California * Western High School (Illinois) – Barry, Illinois * Western High School (Florida) – Davie, Florida * Western High S ...

, where she participated in musicals, talent shows, and choral performances. Singing and dancing from a young age, Grace entertained them along with her five older siblings since she was two. She speaks English and Spanish.

Career

Music career

She recorded and released an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Christian music Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely around ...

album in partnership with

CD Baby CD Baby, Inc. is an online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. The CD Baby music store was shut down in March 2020 with a statement that "C ...

while in middle school. Her mainstream debut came with "

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

", a bilingual cover of the 1961

Shirelles The Shirelles were an American girl group formed in Passaic, New Jersey in 1957. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens (later Shirley Alston Reeves), Doris Coley (later Doris Kenner-Jackson), Addie "Micki" Harris (later Addie Harris McFad ...

hit. Her bachata-tinged rendition peaked at number one on both the ''Billboard'' Tropical Songs chart and ''Billboard'' Latin Airplay charts, making her the youngest female artist to do so. Her self-titled second studio album, ''Leslie Grace'' (2013), reached number four on the ''Billboard'' Latin Albums chart, and number three on the ''Billboard'' Tropical Albums chart. Among her nominations are "Best Contemporary Tropical Album" at the 14th Annual Latin Grammy Awards (in which she sang along with the Zarkana cast of Cirque du Soleil), "Female Tropical Artist of the Year" and "Tropical Album of the Year" at the 26th Premio Lo Nuestro. In 2014 she also obtained nominations in the Billboard Awards in the categories of "New Artist of the Year" and "Hot Latin Songs, Artist of the Year, Female". Among her tours abroad is her presentation on the Caribbean island of Curaçao at the North Sea Jazz Festival, and the tour of the United States with the musical director Rayner Marrero and several bachata musicians in 2013. She also performed on ''

Sábado Gigante Saturday is the day of the week between Friday and Sunday. No later than the 2nd century, the Romans named Saturday ("Saturn's Day") for the planet Saturn, which controlled the first hour of that day, according to Vettius Valens. The day's na ...

'' with Don Francisco, and at the Chile Telethon and at the closing of the same at the National Stadium of Chile, where she sang in front of approximately 60,000 people. In mid-2016 she participated as captain of the

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...

reality show ''Va por ti'' with

Luis Coronel Luis Miguel Coronel Gámez, better known as Luis Coronel, is an American singer of Regional Mexican music. Career Luis Coronel uploaded tons of videos of himself singing, but one caught the eye of Del Records. He recorded himself singing to ...

Chiquis Rivera Janney Marín Rivera (born June 26, 1985), better known as Chiquis Rivera, is an American singer and television personality. She is the eldest daughter of singer Jenni Rivera. She began her singing career in early 2014, releasing her first sing ...

and the host

Galilea Montijo Galilea Montijo (born Martha Galilea Montijo Torres on June 5, 1973) is a Mexican actress, comedian, model, and TV presenter. She currently hosts ''Hoy'', a morning show of Televisa that airs on Mondays through Fridays in Mexico (on Las Estrellas ...

. After releasing the single "Aire" with

Maluma Juan Luis Londoño Arias (born 28 January 1994), known professionally as Maluma, is a Colombian singer, songwriter, and actor. Born and raised in Medellín, he developed an interest in music at a young age, recording songs since age sixteen. ...

, they made a tour of 14 concerts through Mexico. In the same year she released the single "Nada de amor". In January 2017 she collaborated with the duo Play-N-Skillz, Wisin and Frankie J in the reggaeton-style cover of

Selena Selena Quintanilla Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the " Queen of Tejano music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mex ...

's song, "

Si una vez "Si Una Vez" ( en, If I Once) is a song recorded by American recording artist Selena for her fourth studio album, ''Amor Prohibido'' (1994). It was written by Pete Astudillo and produced by Selena's brother-producer A.B. Quintanilla. "Si Una Ve ...

". And in February of the same year she was nominated for the

Premios Lo Nuestro The Lo Nuestro Awards or Premios Lo Nuestro ( Spanish for "Our Thing") is a Spanish-language awards show honoring the best of Latin music, presented by Univision, a Spanish-language television network based in the United States. The awards began i ...

in the category "Female Artist of the Year – Pop / Rock". As of June 2015, Grace is the face of

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and has signed a distribution deal with Sony Music Latin and a worldwide contract with Sony/ATV. On April 12, 2018, her collaboration with

Super Junior Super Junior (; stylized in all caps), also known as SJ or SuJu, is a South Korean boy band formed by Lee Soo-man, the founder of SM Entertainment in 2005. They are also dubbed by the media as the "King of Hallyu Wave" due to their prominent ...

's " Lo Siento" was released on

S.M. Entertainment SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies where it was established in 1995 by record executive and record producer Lee Soo-man. The company ha ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel.

Film career

On April 11, 2019, it was announced that Grace would be starring as Nina Rosario in the 2021 film adaptation of

Lin-Manuel Miranda Lin-Manuel Miranda (; born January 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, actor, playwright and filmmaker. He is known for creating the Broadway musicals ''Hamilton'' (2015) and ''In the Heights'' (2005), and the soundtracks for the Disney animate ...

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...

-winning musical ''

''. The film originally set for a 2020 release date was postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. It was released the following summer in movie theatres and

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

simultaneously. The film received near universal acclaim with many citing it as one of the best films of the year. Grace received praise from critics including David Ehrlich from ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

'' who wrote that she "shined" in the role. K. Austin Collins of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' wrote, "Its highest accomplishment is that it succeeds as the star vehicle Hollywood seemed to demand." On July 21, 2021, Grace was cast as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in

's ''

Batgirl Batgirl is the name of several superheroines appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, depicted as female counterparts and allies to the superhero Batman. Although the character Betty Kane was introduced into publication in ...

''. In August 2022,

Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at 230 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was formed after the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with Di ...

cancelled plans to release the film, which was nearing completion.

Filmography

* ''

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'' (2017) – Student 3 (credited as Leila Grace Bostwick-Riddell) * ''

'' (2021) – Nina Rosario * ''

'' (unreleased) – Barbara Gordon / Batgirl

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Pasión'' (2009) * ''

Leslie Grace Leslie Grace Martínez (born January 7, 1995) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. For her work as a singer she has received three Latin Grammy Award nominations. She starred as Nina Rosario in Jon M. Chu's film adaptation ''In the Hei ...

'' (2013)

Extended plays

* ''

Lloviendo Estrellas ''Lloviendo Estrellas'' is the first extended play by Dominican-American singer Leslie Grace. It was released on June 23, 2015, under Sony Music Latin. It is the first production released under Sony after she left her previous label Top Stop M ...

'' (2015)

Singles

As lead artist As featured artist

Awards and nominations

Lo Nuestro Awards The Lo Nuestro Awards or Premios Lo Nuestro ( Spanish for "Our Thing") is a Spanish-language awards show honoring the best of Latin music, presented by Univision, a Spanish-language television network based in the United States. The awards began i ...

, - , 2013 , Leslie Grace , Tropical Female Artist , , - , 2014 , ''Leslie Grace'' , Tropical Album , , - , 2014 , Leslie Grace , Tropical Female Artist , , - , 2015 , Leslie Grace , Tropical Female Artist , , - , 2016 , Leslie Grace , Tropical Female Artist , , - ''Billboard'' Latin Music Awards , - , 2013 , Leslie Grace , Songs Artist of the Year , , - , 2014 , Leslie Grace , Artist of the Year Debut , , - , 2014 , Leslie Grace , Female Artist of the Year , , -

Latin Grammys The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...

, - , , ''Leslie Grace'' , Best Contemporary Tropical Album , , - , , ''Lloviendo Estrellas'' , Latin Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album, Best Contemporary Tropical Album , , - , , "Como Duele el Silencio" , Best Tropical Song ,

Nickelodeon Mexico Kids' Choice Awards The Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards Mexico is an annual awards show that awards entertainers with a blimp trophy, as voted by children on the Internet. The show is usually held in September and televised days later through Nickelodeon. Hosts Ed ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grace, Leslie 1995 births Living people American singers of Dominican Republic descent American bachata musicians Entertainers from the Bronx People from Davie, Florida Singers from New York City Sony Music Latin artists Top Stop Music artists 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers Hispanic and Latino American women singers Hispanic and Latino American actresses Women in Latin music Latin music songwriters