Nadine Velazquez
American actress — Catalina in My Name Is Earl, Sofia in The League, Flight, Major Crimes and Queens.
Nadine E. Velázquez
Nadine Velazquez was born in Chicago on 20 November 1978 to a family of Puerto Rican descent. She graduated from Notre Dame High School for Girls and earned a bachelor's degree in marketing from Columbia College Chicago in 2001; her first acting job was a McDonald's commercial.
Offered the part of Maricruz Delgado in Prison Break, she chose instead to play Catalina Aruca in NBC's My Name Is Earl, the role that made her name. She went on to recur as Sofia Ruxin in FX's The League, appeared in Hart of Dixie and in the pilot of ABC's Charlie's Angels reboot, and played flight attendant Katerina Marquez opposite Denzel Washington in Flight (2012). From its second season she joined the main cast of TNT's Major Crimes as prosecutor Emma Rios; her films include Snitch (2013) and Ride Along 2 (2016).
She judged the Miss Universe 2008 pageant and hosted Miss USA 2009, and in 2021 starred with Brandy, Eve and Naturi Naughton in ABC's music drama Queens, whose soundtrack singles she performed with the cast.
How the name is written
Of Puerto Rican descent and born in Chicago, she is credited as Velazquez — z, no accent — the way U.S. records usually render the name.
Sources
Facts in this profile are drawn from the Wikipedia article(s) linked below, consulted on 21 September 2026; the text is original. Wikipedia (English) · Wikipedia (Spanish)
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