Margo Rey

Singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and philanthropist Margo Rey trained classically as a vocalist and has built a reputation for cross-genre pop while also taking on parts in Broadway musicals. Born Margarita Reymundo-Jurado in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1966, she spent her childhood in Dallas, Texas, studying classical voice. As a teenager she fronted the all-female rock band the Debutantes, a group that cultivated a loyal regional audience and issued one self-produced album. Throughout the 1990s she performed with multiple ensembles, among them the Ritual and the Latin fusion outfit Miss Margo & the Lost Souls.

In the closing years of that decade, actor Edward James Olmos suggested Rey for the role of Marcella, Selena’s mother, in the Broadway musical Selena Forever, drawn from the life of the late tejano pop star. The opportunity opened a sustained period of stage work that included appearances in Saturday Night Fever, Like Jazz, Zorro: The Musical, Canta Luna, and additional productions. She later moved to Los Angeles, where she added voice-over work to her résumé, lending her voice to numerous television commercials and films.

Rey married comedian Ron White in 2008; the couple established the independent label Organica and issued her first solo album, My Heart’s Desire, the following year. Also in 2009 she received a breast-cancer diagnosis and underwent a double mastectomy, after which she began performing regularly to support research and awareness efforts. In 2012 she released her second full-length album, Habit, which featured the single “Let the Rain,” co-written with John Oates.