Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, she began practicing her craft at the age of seven and followed her dream at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Soon thereafter, she landed a breakthrough role as Angel in the off-Broadway revival of RENT—a role that would motivate her to live her truth and come out openly as transgender. At the conclusion of the show’s run, Rodriguez embarked on a journey of self-discovery, taking time away from her craft to focus on her transition.
With her courageous reemergence into the entertainment industry, Rodriguez made numerous TV, film, and stage appearances, and in 2016, became the first transgender actress and the first transgender character, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Luke Cage. She would go on to star in the critically-acclaimed film Saturday Church, a film about the lives of the transgender community that earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the Tribeca Film Festival.
In 2017, Rodriguez accepted the starring role of Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista in FX’s groundbreaking new drama Pose, a show exploring the lives of queer people of color in the New York City ballroom scene of the 1980s. The show made history for its casting of five transgender women of color in reoccurring roles, the largest ever for a scripted series.
Mj Rodriguez can currently be seen starring as housemother “Blanca” in Ryan Murphy’s groundbreaking series Pose on FX. The series was nominated for a 2019 Emmy Award and a 2018 Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Television
Series Drama, in addition to a Writers Guild Award nomination. The series won a Peabody Award and two GLAAD Media Awards in the category of Outstanding Drama Series. Most recently Rodriguez was nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series in addition to nominations for an MTV Movie + TV Award in the category of Breakthrough Performance and 2 Gold Derby Awards for Drama Actress and Breakthrough Performance. The series will soon make a highly anticipated return to FX for its third season.
