Biography
Mandy Gonzalez, a California-born singer and actress whose Broadway résumé encompasses Hamilton, Wicked, and In the Heights, entered the world in Valencia and grew up in Saugus. After detecting her early love of music, her grandmother arranged childhood vocal lessons, and the pair routinely harmonized on show tunes during the drives there and back.
She first stepped into theater productions while attending high school, then completed a single year at the California Institute of the Arts before being hired as a backing vocalist for Bette Midler’s touring company. Once the tour concluded, Gonzalez settled in New York and made her Broadway entrance in Elton John’s Aida, assuming the role of Amneris in 2003. Among the shows that followed, she originated the part of Nina Rosario in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights in 2008, departed the production in early 2010, and stepped into the role of Elphaba in Wicked that March.
Her screen career began with a singing appearance in the 2007 film Across the Universe, after which she collected guest roles on the daytime serial One Life to Live and CBS’s The Good Wife, both in 2009. She next appeared in the 2012 feature Man on a Ledge and continued occasional television work until securing a multi-season recurring role on the CBS series Madam Secretary. In September 2016 she joined the Broadway cast of Hamilton as Angelica Schuyler, succeeding originator Renée Elise Goldsberry.
Ghostlight issued Gonzalez’s first solo project, the seven-track EP Fearless, in 2017; the recording presented her own spare treatments of stage and screen material by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bill Sherman, Livingston & Evans, and additional writers.
She first stepped into theater productions while attending high school, then completed a single year at the California Institute of the Arts before being hired as a backing vocalist for Bette Midler’s touring company. Once the tour concluded, Gonzalez settled in New York and made her Broadway entrance in Elton John’s Aida, assuming the role of Amneris in 2003. Among the shows that followed, she originated the part of Nina Rosario in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights in 2008, departed the production in early 2010, and stepped into the role of Elphaba in Wicked that March.
Her screen career began with a singing appearance in the 2007 film Across the Universe, after which she collected guest roles on the daytime serial One Life to Live and CBS’s The Good Wife, both in 2009. She next appeared in the 2012 feature Man on a Ledge and continued occasional television work until securing a multi-season recurring role on the CBS series Madam Secretary. In September 2016 she joined the Broadway cast of Hamilton as Angelica Schuyler, succeeding originator Renée Elise Goldsberry.
Ghostlight issued Gonzalez’s first solo project, the seven-track EP Fearless, in 2017; the recording presented her own spare treatments of stage and screen material by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bill Sherman, Livingston & Evans, and additional writers.
Albums
Singles