‘One Day at a Time’ star and Broadway vet Justina Machado is about to carry the warmth to ‘Dancing With The Stars’ season 29. Right here’s what else it is best to know concerning the actress!
and love her from One Day at a Time. Now, Justina Machado is taking over a brand new function: Dancing With The Stars contestant. Justina, 48, is about to chop a rug on the dance flooring and vie for the coveted Mirror Ball trophy on DWTS season 29. Right here’s 5 issues it is best to know concerning the gifted actress — and dancer! — earlier than her huge debut.
1. She performs Penelope on One Day at a Time. Justina performs Penelope on the beloved sitcom, a mom and veteran who suffers from PTSD. One Day at a Time initially aired on Netflix, and moved to Pop TV after huge fan outrage over its cancellation. Justina advised HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY that she was so moved by the fan help. “It’s unimaginable,” Justina mentioned. “We’ve got a terrific fan base… It was superb what they did and we’re so grateful.”
2. She was initially identified for her roles in dramas, not comedies. Justina made a reputation for herself in Six Ft Underneath, enjoying Vanessa Diaz, a girl who abused prescribed drugs, skilled deep melancholy, and whose husband cheated on her. On Non-public Observe, she was a nurse whose coronary heart was damaged by Taye Diggs‘ character. However she’s additionally a grasp at comedic performing, as followers now know.
“I like going to work and laughing and having a superb time, but it surely’s positively laborious work,” Justina advised the Chicago Tribune in 2013. “It truly is, as a result of you must determine the place the joke is. Is that this the joke? Which phrase ought to I hit? It’s liberating, although. As a lot as I like my dramatic roles, it’s a little bit tiresome all the time being the damsel in misery.”

three. She’s additionally a Broadway star. Justina made her Broadway debut in 2009, enjoying Daniela in Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s Tony-winning musical In The Heights. She went on to star in productions of Love, Loss and What I Wore, Some Woman(s), and Black Butterfly.
four. She didn’t suppose she’d grow to be an actress rising up. Whereas she liked to sing and carry out, Justina thought she’d simply get a “regular” job. “My mother and father are from Puerto Rico. We have been lower-middle class,” Justina advised the Chicago Tribune. “My household’s mentality was, go and get a superb job and keep in Chicago and have a household and simply be accountable and simply have that actual Midwestern type of life. They simply didn’t actually take into consideration anything. Something like [acting] was not one thing that was mentioned in my home.”

5. She’s able to crush it on Dancing With The Stars. Justina admitted to ET that she already had a “breakdown” whereas driving dwelling from rehearsals, and that she’s “gone via each emotion” at this level. As for her first dance? She teased that it’s “on the planet of Latin.”
Supply: hollywoodlife.com