Nicole Blonsky (born November 9, 1988) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and internet personality. She is known for playing

Tracy Turnblad ''Hairspray'' is a 1988 American comedy film written and directed by John Waters, starring Ricki Lake, Divine, Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono, Jerry Stiller, Leslie Ann Powers, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Michael St. Gerard, and Ruth Brown. ''Hairspray'' was ...

in the film '' Hairspray'' (2007), for which she won two Critics' Choice Awards and received nominations for a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

and a

Screen Actors Guild Award Screen Actors Guild Awards (also known as SAG Awards) are accolades given by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The award was founded in 1952 to recognize outstanding performances in movie and ...

. Blonsky has starred as Willamena Rader in the ABC Family series '' Huge'' (2010), for which she received a Teen Choice Award nomination, had a recurring role as Margot on the series ''Smash'' (2013), and had roles in the films ''Geography Club'' (2013) as Therese and '' The Last Movie Star'' (2017) as Faith. She is a licensed cosmetologist.

Early life

Blonsky was born and raised in

Great Neck, New York Great Neck is a region on Long Island, New York, that covers a peninsula on the North Shore and includes nine villages, among them Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Great Neck Plaza, Kings Point, and Russell Gardens, and a number of unincorpor ...

. She and her brother Joey are the children of Karen, a school aide, and Carl Blonsky, a municipal worker for the village

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Wate ...

control district. Her father is Jewish, and her mother is Roman Catholic. Blonsky attended Great Neck North Middle School and attended John L. Miller Great Neck North High School, and switched to Village School after a year at the latter. She additionally attended the after-school theatre program at William A. Shine Great Neck South High School daily, where she participated in productions of ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

'', '' Sweeney Todd'', ''

Kiss Me, Kate ''Kiss Me, Kate'' is a musical written by Bella and Samuel Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' and the conflict on and off-sta ...

'', and the title role of the opera ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opér ...

''.

Career

2008 Voice Awards Nikki Blonsky (20163852830)

Blonsky made her screen debut as

in the musical feature film '' Hairspray'', which is an adaptation of the musical of the same name. She auditioned for the role as a high-school student with no professional acting or singing background at the time, and beat out eleven-hundred candidates. The film was released to commercial and critical success, and became Blonsky's breakthrough role. She received praise for her performance, with

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of The ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' writing "Without somebody like Nikki Blonsky at the heart of the movie, it might fall flat, but everybody works at her level of happiness..." She received several awards and nominations, including winning two Critic's Choice Awards for Best Actress and Best Acting Ensemble, and being nominated for the

for Best Actress and the

for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. On June 22, 2008, she sang

The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bo ...

in the pre-race ceremony at the 2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at

Infineon Raceway Sonoma Raceway (originally known as Sears Point Raceway from 1967 to 1980 and 1982 to 2002, Golden State International Raceway in 1981 and Infineon Raceway from 2002 to 2012) is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the souther ...

. Blonsky also co-starred in the MTV mystery series '' Valemont'' in 2009. In 2010, Blonsky co-starred with Raven Goodwin in the short lived ABC Family series '' Huge'', which premiered in June 2010, and ran for one season. ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

'' described her as the show's "great asset" and praised her for having "the delicate skill to make Will’s anger take the forms of both sincerity and a funny sarcasm." For ''Huge'', she received a nomination for a Teen Choice Award. In 2011, Blonsky earned a

cosmetology Cosmetology (from Greek , ''kosmētikos'', "beautifying"; and , ''-logia'') is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty include hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/pedicures, non-permanent hair removal such as ...

license, and began working part-time as a hairstylist and make-up artist in her hometown of

, between acting auditions. In 2013, Blonsky appeared in two episodes of the NBC Broadway drama series ''

Smash Smash may refer to: People * Smash (wrestler) (born 1959), professional wrestler * Moondog Rex, another professional wrestler who briefly wrestled as the original Smash, before being replaced by the above. * DJ Smash, DJ and music producer A ...

''. Later that year, she appeared in the film adaptation of the book '' Geography Club''. The film received mixed reviews, however she and the cast were nominated for an award at the

ShoWest Convention The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) is an American trade organization whose members are the owners of movie theaters. Most of the worldwide major theater chains' operators are members, as are hundreds of independent theater opera ...

in 2014. Blonsky appeared

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

in the play ''Stuffed'' by Lisa Lampanelli at the Westside Theatre in October 2017 to November 2017. In 2020, Blonsky launched her video blogging series on her

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

account, in which she chats with other celebrities.

Personal life

In July 2008, Blonsky and her parents were involved in a violent confrontation with the family of Bianca Golden, a former contestant on ''

America's Next Top Model ''America's Next Top Model'' (abbreviated ''ANTM'' and ''Top Model'') is an American reality television series and interactive competition in which a number of aspiring models compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model" and a chance to ...

'', at the Providenciales International Airport in

Turks and Caicos The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of Island#Tropical islands, tropical islands i ...

. Golden, Blonsky, and Blonsky's father were all charged with assault. That December, the charges against Blonsky and Golden were dropped. In June 2020, Blonsky came out as a lesbian in a video posted to the social media site

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

set to the song " I'm Coming Out" by

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

. In August 2020, Blonsky confirmed that she currently resides on Long Island. In 2022, Blonsky announced her engagement to her partner Hailey Jo Jenson.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* *
"17 Year-Old Nikki Blonsky Cast as Hairspray Film's Tracy"
BroadwayWorld.com, June 8, 2006
"Breaking News: Unknown Lands Hairspray Lead"
, Cinematical.com, June 8, 2006
"A 'Hairspray' dream come true"
MSNBC/Access Hollywood, June 15, 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Blonsky, Nikki 1988 births Actresses from New York (state) American child actresses American child singers American film actresses American television actresses American women bloggers American bloggers LGBT people from New York (state) American LGBT singers LGBT dancers Living people People from Great Neck, New York American female dancers American dancers 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers Great Neck North High School alumni Dancers from New York (state) American people of Jewish descent Women video bloggers American lesbian actresses LGBT Jews