Idina Menzel, American singer-songwriter and actress
Idina Kim Menzel (; née Mentzel; born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer.
Menzel rose to prominence as a stage actress playing Maureen Johnson in the rock musical Rent, her Broadway debut. Her performance earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. After appearing in several smaller-scale stage and Off-Broadway productions, she originated the role of Elphaba in the Broadway musical Wicked in 2003, a critically acclaimed performance for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. The popularity of Menzel's character and the song "Defying Gravity" earned her a devoted fanbase among theater enthusiasts. After leaving the show in 2005, she reprised the role in the musical's West End production for a limited engagement lasting until the end of 2006. In 2014, Menzel returned to Broadway as Elizabeth Vaughan in the musical If/Then, for which she received a third Tony Award nomination.
In the early 2000s, Menzel began transitioning to television and film. After reprising her role as Maureen in Rent’s film adaptation, she had a non-singing role as Nancy Tremaine in the musical fantasy Enchanted (2007). Menzel also had a recurring role as Shelby Corcoran on the musical comedy television series Glee from 2010 to 2013. In 2019, she starred opposite Adam Sandler in the crime drama Uncut Gems, and played Vivian, Cinderella's stepmother, in 2021's jukebox musical adaptation of Cinderella.
Menzel has voiced Elsa in Disney's 3D computer-animated musical Frozen franchise and related media since 2013; the song she recorded for the first film, "Let it Go", became widely popular and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. An international phenomenon, "Let It Go" peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, in turn making Menzel the first Tony Award-winning actor to have a top-10 song on the chart. As a solo singer and songwriter, Menzel has released six studio albums, including I Stand (2008) and idina. (2016). Her first holiday album, 2014s Holiday Wishes, peaked at number six on the Billboard 200, her highest-placing solo album on the chart.