Stephanie Beatriz has played many a tough chick on TV. She's played Rosa Diaz for all eight seasons of cop comedy "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," which is ending this year. Rosa is known for her tough exterior, which only melts in the presence of puppies and her family. Beatriz's real life helped inform the character, as she came out as bisexual in real life around the same time that her character did. Rosa's family had a poor reaction to the news, but her father (played by Danny Trejo) eventually came around.
Beyond the nine-nine, Beatriz also scared people as Gloria's unhinged sister Sonia on "Modern Family." Gloria and Sonia's beef stems from the withholding nature of their father, as the two felt his approval was a finite resource over which to compete. They eventually resolved many of their conflicts.
On the opposite side of the toughie-cutie spectrum, Beatriz played Carla in the Lin Manuel Miranda musical "In the Heights." Carla is the co-worker and life partner of salon owner Daniela ("RENT" on Broadway's Daphne Rubin-Vega). Carla is sweet and ditzy, especially compared to Beatriz's other characters. A big difference between Carla on Broadway and in the film is that she and Daniela are girlfriends in the film, whereas they were just coworkers in the stage version.
