Karen Olivo Wins Tony Award For West Side Story

See, Broadway? (And, by extension, Hollywood.) It’s nice to cast Latinos in Latino roles. Karen Olivo, 32, won a Tony award last night for her portrayal of “Anita” in West Side Story. Previously, she played Vanessa in In The Heights, a musical that surprised everyone in its ability to be both engaging and focused on Latinos.

So. Let’s get to know Vanessa, shall we? We’re expecting to hear a lot more about her in the future. Karen is Puerto Rican and Native American on her father’s side, and Dominican and Chinese on her mother’s. If her name already sounds familiar to you, it’s because she’s already garnered acclaim for her previous work both on Broadway and off.

Karen’s previous roles include that of “Mimi” in Rent and ”Faith” in 2004’s BKLYN, among others. She’s also been nominated for an Outer Critic’s Circle Award for her role as Anita, as well as her second Astaire Award nomination for Best Female  Dancer, the first of which we nabbed for her work in In The Heights.

In an interview with Playbill this time last year, Karen admitted that there aren’t a whole lot of (famous) Latinos in this game:

Question: As a teenager or in college, were there actors or singers that you admired or influenced you? 
Olivo: Shirley MacLaine. I won a scholarship — the Ruth Eckerd Hall Scholarship in Florida for musical theatre, and she was the one who gave it to me, and she was really great. I got to meet her, and she gave me some advice: “It’s really hard. If you really want to do it, you’re going to have to stick with it. And a lot of people are going to tell you you can’t do it, but you gotta just keep trying…” Stuff like that. And then, obviously, Priscilla Lopez and Rita Moreno because they’re of Latin descent, and there weren’t a whole lot of people that I could identify with.

We have a feeling that’ll change.

Click Below for More Pictures of Karen Olivo

Karen Olivo [Wikipedia]