Idina Menzel

Idina Kim Menzel (/ɪˈdiːnə mɛnˈzɛl/ ^ⓘ ih-DEE-nə men-ZEL; née Mentzel; born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer. Particularly known for her work in musicals on Broadway, she has been nicknamed the "Queen of Broadway" for her commanding stage presence, powerful mezzo-soprano voice, and reputation as one of the most influential stage actors of her generation. Having achieved mainstream success across stage, screen, and music, her accolades include a Tony Award and a Daytime Emmy Award.

Menzel rose to prominence as a stage actress in 1996, making her Broadway debut as performance artist Maureen Johnson in the rock musical Rent, which earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. In 2003, she originated the role of Elphaba in the musical Wicked on Broadway, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. After leaving the show in 2005, she reprised the role in the musical's original West End production in 2006, becoming the highest-paid actress in West End theatre history. In 2014, Menzel returned to Broadway in the musical If/Then, for which she received a third Tony Award nomination.

Menzel began transitioning into film and television in the early 2000s. After reprising her Rent role in the musical's 2005 film adaptation, she had a supporting role in Disney's musical fantasy film Enchanted (2007). She played recurring character Shelby Corcoran on the musical television series Glee from 2010 to 2013. Since 2013, Menzel has voiced Elsa in Disney's Frozen franchise; "Let It Go", a song she recorded for the first film, peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100. Menzel has since played supporting roles in the films Uncut Gems (2019), Cinderella (2021), and You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023).

As a recording artist and songwriter, Menzel has released seven studio albums, including I Stand (2008) and Holiday Wishes (2014); the latter peaked at number six on the Billboard 200, becoming her highest-charting studio album to-date.

Idina Kim Menzel was born on May 30, 1971, in Manhattan. She grew up in New Jersey until about age three; her family moved to Syosset, New York, on Long Island. Her parents are Stuart Mentzel, a pyjama salesman, and Helene Goldberg, a therapist. She has a younger sister named Cara. Menzel is Jewish and her grandparents emigrated from Russia. She attended J. Irving Baylis Elementary School in Plainview, New York, as well as H. B. Thompson Middle School in Syosset, and Syosset High School.

When Menzel was 15 years old, her parents divorced and she began working as a wedding and bar/bat mitzvah singer, a job that she held while a student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama there in 1992. Idina changed the spelling of her surname to "Menzel" to better reflect the pronunciation that the Mentzel family had adopted in the United States. She was friends with actor Adam Pascal before they worked together in Rent.

In 2017, Irish songwriter Jimmy Walsh who was based in New York City said that in 1992, Menzel had recorded a demo for him of the song "In Your Eyes", which went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 for Irish singer Niamh Kavanagh. Menzel was paid $75 for the recording.

In 1995, Menzel auditioned for Rent, which became her first professional theatre job and her Broadway debut. Rent opened Off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop on January 26, 1996, but it moved to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre due to its popularity. For her performance as Maureen Johnson in the original cast of the musical, Menzel received a Tony nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical losing to Ann Duquesnay for Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk. Her final performance in the musical was on July 1, 1997. Despite her breakout performance in Rent, Menzel did not experience the immediate success she was expecting, claiming she subsequently faded into "obscurity" for the following eight years.