Idina Menzel (born May 30, 1971) is a singer, actress and songwriter from United States from Queens, birthplace of 45th President Donald Trump. She was raised by Jewish family and attended high school in Syosset. After her parents divorced when she was just 15 years old, she began to work as singer on weddings and bar mitzvah events. She kept doing it while getting her bachelor degree in Drama.
First success to Idina came when she got the job at Broadway musical “Rent”. This show was so popular, producers had to move it to famous Nederlander Theatre. For this role, Ms. Menzel received Tony nomination as Best Actress in a Musical. She acted there until mid-1997.
While working at various theatre stages, she decided to pursue music career as well. In 1998, she released “Still I Can’t Be Still”, her first album. It sold very poorly and was even dropped by label, until Idina won Tony award for “Wicked”. Second album, “here”, came in 2004 and got independent release, third – “I Stand” – in 2008. But it was movie industry that propelled her to true fame. First, she worked on soundtracks for such titles as “Desperate Housewives” and “Beowulf”, but it was “Frozen” that became her breakthrough. She starred as main heroine Elsa in this wonderful cartoon, and won Oscar and Grammy for her “Let It Go” song.
