Lee Rodriguez

LaRhonza Lee Rodriguez was born on November 28, 1999, in Fresno, California^[3] to a Mexican-American father and an African American mother.^[4] When she was a child, her family moved to Hesperia, California. When she was in the 8th grade, she started performing roles in the school theatre at Encore Jr./Sr. High School, a school specializing in the arts, helping her develop an interest in acting. She listed herself in a talent agency and later got a role in the year 2018.^[3]

Rodriguez's first TV acting role was her portrayal of Bea in the series Class of Lies in 2018.^[5] In the same year Rodriguez portrayed Naomi on Grown-ish in 2018.^[5][6] In 2020, Rodriguez joined the cast of Mindy Kaling's Netflix series Never Have I Ever as Fabiola,^[7] a gay teenager who is captain of the robotics team at her high school.^[8][9] To prepare for the role, she tried her hand at building a robot that she named "Tinzel Washington".^[3]

In 2023, Rodriguez started releasing music under the stage name "La Rhonza".^{[citation needed]}

Rodriguez has spoken about colorism and the lack of representation of dark-skinned actresses of colour in the entertainment industry.^[3] Rodriguez has future goals of releasing music albums and touring.^[3] Rodriguez identifies as queer, first coming out on National Coming Out Day in 2020.^[10][11][12]