Curly Girl Gina Torres Is Huge On ABC Family's Hit

Naturally curly girl actress, Gina Torres, is amazing as Camp Director Dorothy Rand on ABC's hit Summer series, Huge.  The show which will make you laugh and cry is set in a summer weight-loss camp called appropriately enough, Camp Victory.

The youngest of three children, Gina Torres was born in Manhattan and raised in The Bronx with her close-knit Cuban family.

(Image of Gina Torres as Camp Counselor Dorothy on ABC Family's Huge - ABC - All Rights Reserved)

Although Gina has had a renowned acting career she is actually best known her role in Fox's short-lived Firefly series which only lasted one season, but still carries a heavy sci-fi fan base. She reprised her Firefly role as Zoe in the film Serenity (2005).

On ABC's Huge Gina is brilliant as an emotionally stunted, stern camp manager who apparently had a heart breaking affair with a married man.

In a recent episode we learned about her long struggle with an eating disorder as well as her conflicted relationship with her estranged father who recently signed on at the camp as Salty, the head cook.  Gina's portrayal as Dorothy is just as inspiring and heart breaking as those of her camp wards.

Wearing Her Natural Ringlets Au Natural

Because the show is set at a camp, Gina's Dorothy wears her amazing headful of tight ringlets au natural.  Off screen Gina wears her hair in a wide range of textures from silky straight to curl infused updos.

I think it's fabulous the writers of Huge incorporate her natural hair texture into the storyline.  At one point she primps for a date with a potential new love and frets over how to coif her cascading ringlets.

Entering The World Of Acting

Gina graduated from Fiorello LaGuardia School of Arts where, before entering the world of acting, she studied opera and jazz as a vocal major.  Within a year of graduating, she was cast as Deena Jones in Dreamgirls, her first professional acting job.

It wasn’t long before she started appearing on Broadway being directed by such legends as Tommy Tune and Pete Masterson in Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public and Jerry Zaks in Face Value.

Theater Credits

Her additional theater credits include Off- and Off-Off Broadway plays and musicals that ranged from classic Greek tragedy in Antigone and Amphytrion; to Shakespeare’s Pericles of Tyre and Julius Cesar; to contemporary classics such as Lorca’s Blood Wedding; to the world premieres of Sheila’s Day and Heliotrope Bouquet.

Cleopatra 2525

Roles on television and film followed in Law & Order, One Life to Live, Any Day Now and La Femme Nikita but it was her collaboration with producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert on four different shows – MANTIS, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess and Cleopatra 2525 (the latter of which earned her an ALMA Award) - that brought her to the masses and promptly shifted her career.

Assassin Anna Espinosa On Alias

Included amongst Torres’s most notable television credits are her performances as the Russo-Cuban assassin Anna Espinosa on Alias, the shotgun-toting mercenary Zoe Washburn on Joss Whedon’s Firefly (whom she also played in his feature film Serenity) and the soul-eating Jasmin on Whedon’s Angel.

The Shields, 24 And Other Notable Roles

Additional recent television credits include The Shield, 24, Pushing Daisies, Flash Forward, Gossip Girl, Boondocks, and The Vampire Diaries.  She has also voiced the roles of Vixen in The Justice League series and Superwoman in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths opposite James Woods.

Gina’s film credits include The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Jam, South Of Pico,  Think I Love My Wife with Chris Rock, Hair Show with Mo’Nique, Five Fingers opposite real life spouse Laurence Fishburne and Don’t Let Me Drown (critic’s choice at the Sundance Film Festival 2009).

More Information

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