Eden Espinosa
Born	February 2, 1978 (1978-02-02) (age 31) Anaheim, California

Eden Erica Espinosa (born February 2, 1978 in Anaheim, California) is an American singer and stage actress.^[1]

Contents 1 Family 2 Career 3 Recordings 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Family

Eden Espinosa's parents are a pastor and Christian music composer, and a public school teacher. She also has a brother.

[edit] Career

Eden Espinosa began singing at the age of three and performing at age five.^[2] After graduating from Canyon High School, she worked at local theme parks such as Disneyland and Universal Studios prior to being discovered by the BKLYN casting director.^[3] Espinosa worked on creating the title role of the musical at the Denver Civic Theatre for nearly two years. Prior to BKLYN's Broadway run at the Plymouth Theatre, Eden made her Broadway debut in the original company of Stephen Schwartz's musical Wicked, where she was the standby for the role of Elphaba. Espinosa departed Wicked on September 5, 2004. BKLYN began its Broadway run on October 24, 2004 and closed on June 26, 2005.^[4]

Shortly after BKLYN closed, another opportunity for Espinosa to rejoin Wicked arose. Espinosa performed the role of "Elphaba" in San Francisco from August 5 to September 11, 2005 while Stephanie J. Block recovered form an injury.^[5]

On January 10, 2006 Espinosa returned to the Gershwin Theatre to take over the role of Elphaba from Shoshana Bean. For this role she won the Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Female Replacement.^[6] She left the Broadway production on October 8, 2006 and was succeeded by Ana Gasteyer. She then reprised the role of Elphaba in the Los Angeles production of Wicked, which opened on February 21, 2007 at the Pantages Theatre. Espinosa left the Los Angeles company on December 30, 2007 and was replaced by Caissie Levy.

Shortly after her departure from Wicked, Espinosa starred in a production of Flora the Red Menace which ran at UCLA's Freud Playhouse from May 6-18, 2008.^[7] After its closing, Eden took on the role of Maureen from Nicolette Hart in the Broadway company of Rent on May 30, 2008. She remained with the show till its closing night on September 7, 2008.^[8] She then returned once again to the Los Angeles production of Wicked on October 31, 2008 to reprise the role of Elphaba and stayed with the production until its closure on January 11, 2009.^[9]

On September 21st 2008, Eden made her West End debut in "Never Neverland", a benefit concert that helps in aid of Ovarian Cancer and NCH. The concert took place at the Duchess Theatre in London.

In addition to her theatre credits, Espinosa has appeared on various television shows; including Law & Order, Robot Chicken, Ugly Betty, Dog Whisperer, and most recently Titan Maximum as Sasha Caylo.

Espinosa was also part of the one-night celebrity performed staging of Howard Ashman's unproduced musical Dreamstuff. The musical was re-imagined by Howard's partners Marsha Malamet and Dennis Green and performed one night only at Los Angeles' Hayworth Theatre as part of the Bruno Kirby celebrity reading series, directed by her Ugly Betty co-star Michael Urie.

In March 2009, Eden took her solo show entitled "Me" to Joe's Pub in NYC for a series of concerts following her three performances of the show towards the end of Wicked's LA run. She is scheduled to return to Southern California with her show on Friday, July 24, 2009 at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. Eden was featured as a soloist for Disneyland's new firework spectacular "Magical" premiering in the summer of 2009, where she sang Magical's theme song as well as classic Disney tunes like "Baby Mine".^[10]

On April 29, 2009 Eden announced that she is recording her first album on the Fruit Salad Show.

[edit] Recordings

• Top 25 Praise Songs - Updated (2000)
• Top 25 Acoustic Worship Songs (2002)
• The Maury Yeston Songbook (2003)
• Hair - The Actors' Fund of America Benefit Recording (2005)
• Brooklyn The Musical (2005 Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Dreaming Wide Awake The Music of Scott Alan (2007)
• David Burnham - Featured duet: "As Long As You're Mine" (2007)
• Magical Fireworks - sound track: Disneyland

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Eden Espinosa at the Internet Movie Database
• Eden Espinosa on BWW TV, March 16, 2009