Lea Michele Biography and Full Profile Online.

Actress. Born Lea Michele Sarfati on August 29, 1986, in Bronx, New York. Sarfati discovered her passion for performing at an early age. Growing up in Tenafly, New Jersey, she was drawn to nearby New York City's vibrant theater scene. At the age of 8, Michele landed the role of young Cosette in the Broadway production of Les Miserables. She sang a song from Phantom of the Opera, the only musical she knew at the time, at her audition. Michele had gone to the audition to support a friend, but ended up landing the part herself.The daughter of a deli owner and a nurse, Michele moved on to another Broadway production, Ragtime, in 1995. She played the Little Girl, the quiet daughter of a Jewish immigrant. The cast included such well-known Broadway talents as Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell. She landed another break in 2004 with a role in a revival of Fiddler on the Roof starring Alfred Molina. Accepted to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts that same year, Michele decided to forgo college to pursue her career.
Despite her success on the stage, Michele did not fit in easily at her high school. "I am an unconventional beauty. I grew up in a high school where if you didn't have a nose job and money and if you weren't thin, you weren't cool, popular, beautiful," she told USA Today.

Michele's career-making turn occurred in 2006 with Spring Awakening, a rock musical based on the 1891 play by Frank Webekind. The production depicts a group of German teenagers who explore their sexuality. Michele had to handle some serious and sometimes explicit material in her role as Wendla. "I'm in a see-through nightgown and in a beating scene," she explained to WWD. Wendla becomes involved with Melchoir (played by Jonathan Groff) with disastrous results. Off stage, the two performers became best friends. She also worked with future Glee co-star Jenna Ushkowitz on the production. Michele and Groff left the cast of Spring Awakening at the same time in May of 2008.

Moving out to Los Angeles, Michele sought out movie and television roles. One of her aspirations at the time was to get a guest spot on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Michele ended up getting a much more substantial role on Glee. Landing the part of Rachel Berry had its challenges, however. She believed that she flopped in her first audition. "The piano player messed up the song, and they were laughing so hard I had to tell them it was a serious scene and ask them to stop laughing," she told New York magazine. Before her last audition, Michele got into a car accident. She left the damaged car at the scene and got to the meeting with shards of glass still in her hair.

The creators and producers of the show, including Ryan Murphy, were impressed by Michele. Murphy told USA Today that the part was written especially for her. "I really believe in Lea's talent because her talent was once in a lifetime," he said. The role of an ambitious teenager who dreams of stardom appears to be a good fit for the actress. "Rachel is me when I was that age. She knows what she loves and who she is. She doesn't get caught up in what other people think is important," Michele told New York magazine. Her portrayal of Rachel earned Michele her first Emmy Award nomination in 2010.
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If you want to add an image of Lea Michele please do it only if you are the author of it or if the image is in the Public Domain. Lea Michele began her career on the stage, appearing in the Broadway productions of numerous shows, like Les Miserables and Spring Awakening, before transitioning to the screen. Her big break in TV came in 2009, with a starring role in the high school drama Glee.

Lea Michele Relationships:
    * Landon Beard - Ex-significant Other
    * John Lloyd Young - Ex-significant Other
    * Edith Sarfati - Mother
    * Marc Sarfati - Father
    * Theo Stockman - Significant Other

Lea Michele Awards:
    * 2010 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy - Nominee
    * 2010 Emmy: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Nominee
    * 2009 Screen Actors Guild Awards: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series - Winner

Lea Michele's career began when she accompany a friend to a casting call for a musical, and decided to try out on a whim. She got a role, and made her Broadway debut in 1995, as Young Cosette in the New York production of Les Miserables. This led to appearances in Broadway productions of Ragtime (where she was part of the original cast), Fiddler on the Roof, and Spring Awakening, which earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination.
Her theater work led Michele to television. While she had previous screen experience - she was a guest on an episode of Third Watch, in 2000 - she is best known as high school diva Rachel Berry on the Fox series Glee. The comedy, which was a runaway success, led to several other projects, including the films New Year's Eve and Dorothy of Oz. The Glee role also gave her a Satellite Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.