Eden Espinosa

Eden Espinosa is best known for her two major roles on Broadway, in "Wicked" (and recently in Los Angeles) and "Brooklyn". Espinosa began singing at the age of three and performing at age five. She worked at local theme parks such as Disneyland and Universal Studios prior to being discovered by the BKLYN casting director. 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, Espinosa made her Broadway debut in the original company of Stephen Schwartz's musical Wicked, where she also served as Idina Menzel's standby as Elphaba. At one point, Espinosa continuously performed in the role for a month, while Menzel was busy shooting the film Ask The Dust in South Africa. Espinosa departed Wicked in August, 2004. BKLYN began its Broadway run on October 24, 2004 and closed on June 26, 2005. Shortly after BKLYN closed, another opportunity for Espinosa to rejoin Wicked arose. Actress Stephanie J. Block was injured on the musical's National Tour, and was unable to perform for the tour's stop in San Francisco. Espinosa temporarily replaced Block as "Elphaba" from August 5 to September 11, 2005. On January 10, 2006 Espinosa replaced actress Shoshana Bean as Elphaba, returning to the Gershwin Theatre once again. She left the Broadway production on October 8, 2006 and was replaced by the Original Chicago Elphaba, Ana Gasteyer. She recently reprised the role of "Elphaba" alongside former co-star Megan Hilty in the open-ended 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 along with co-stars Carol Kane and Adam Wylie. She was replaced by Caissie Levy, LA standby and previous Broadway Understudy Espinosa can be heard on the Original Concept Cast Recording of the musical Bright Lights, Big City, as well as the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit Recording of Hair which incidentally also stars Shoshana Bean, Ana Gasteyer, Julia Murney, and Brandi Chavonne Massey also of Wicked ( All in the role of Elphaba) In addition to her theatre credits, Espinosa has appeared on various television shows; including Law & Order, Robot Chicken, and most recently Ugly Betty. She is currently appearing in RENT on Broadway as Maureen as part of its closing cast. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.