How Shop Class, Lena Dunham & Getting Fired Led Fun Home's Roberta Colindrez to Broadway

Age: 29

Hometown: Austin, TX

Current Role: A Broadway debut as Joan, the college crush Alison Bechdel is “changing my major to” in the Tony-winning musical Fun Home.

Stage & Screen Cred: Colindrez originated the role of Joan in the Sundance Theatre Lab and Public Theater incarnations of Fun Home. She’s appeared on screen in Birdman, Boardwalk Empire and in a scene-stealing turn as ‘Tako with a K’ on Girls.

“I was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and we moved when I was five. I was an extremely shy kid, and I didn’t really talk, so no one in school knew that I couldn’t actually speak English.”

“My brother and I wanted to take a class together in seventh grade, and the electives to choose from were band and choir. We were like, ‘F*ck, no.’ Shop class was full, so theater was really the only thing. It was a total accident I discovered I wanted to become an actor.”

“If I ever win an award for anything, I’ll have to thank Lena Dunham because she put me on the map. I still get recognized—people will come up and be like, ‘You were Tako on Girls, weren’t you?’”

“When I got the Fun Home workshop at Sundance in 2012, I’d just gotten fired from my day job bartending at the Bowery Hotel. I was like, “Great, I’ll do a play in Utah for a month, f*ck yeah. Stay in somebody’s mansion and it's all paid for? Are you kidding me?!’”

“Tony night was also Prince's birthday. He’s my favorite musician, so I wore a purple suit in honor of him. When Fun Home won, it was the most serene, surreal moment ever.”

“We all knew Fun Home was something special, but we had no idea it would get this kind of recognition or momentum. Hearing women at the stage door say, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever seen myself on stage’ has been the most special part.”