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Idina Kim Menzel ( /ɪˈdiːnə mɛnˈzɛl/; born Mentzel on May 30, 1971) is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence for her performance as Maureen Johnson in the Broadway musical Rent, a role which she reprised for the 2005 film adaptation. In 2004 she won the Tony Award for originating the role of Elphaba in the hugely successful Broadway blockbuster Wicked. As of December 2011, she is featured in a recurring role in the third season of Glee. Menzel was born in Queens, New York. Her mother, Helene, is a therapist, and her father, Stuart Mentzel, worked as a... MORE

Idina Kim Menzel ( /ɪˈdiːnə mɛnˈzɛl/; born Mentzel on May 30, 1971) is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence for her performance as Maureen Johnson in the Broadway musical Rent, a role which she reprised for the 2005 film adaptation. In 2004 she won the Tony Award for originating the role of Elphaba in the hugely successful Broadway blockbuster Wicked. As of December 2011, she is featured in a recurring role in the third season of Glee. Menzel was born in Queens, New York. Her mother, Helene, is a therapist, and her father, Stuart Mentzel, worked as a pajama salesman. Her family is Jewish; her grandparents immigrated from Russia and Eastern Europe. Her family lived in Marlboro Township, New Jersey from when she was in kindergarten to third grade, but she was raised in Syosset, New York, with her younger sister Cara, and later changed her last name to Menzel to better reflect the pronunciation the Mentzel family had adopted in America. When Menzel was 15 years old, her parents divorced and she began working as a wedding and bar mitzvah singer, a job which she continued throughout her time at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She earned a LESS