Rachel Ticotin

Ticotin was born in The Bronx in 1958, one of six children born to a Puerto Rican mother and a Polish-Jewish father.^[2] Her father was a used-car salesman. She began taking dance lessons at age 9 under Tina Ramirez, and joined her Ballet Hispanico at age 14, performing with the company for four years.^[3] She worked with choreographers like Alvin Ailey, Donald McKayle, Anna Sokolow and Geoffrey Holder. Ticotin graduated from Professional Children's School.^[3]

Ticotin earned money for acting lessons by working as a babysitter, in addition to managing New York's Public Theater and working as an usher there. She also was a production assistant for some films made in New York.^[4]

In 1978, Ticotin made her film debut as a dancer in the film King of the Gypsies. She also acted in the Off-Broadway production of Miguel Piñero's The Sun Always Shines for the Cool. During this period, she received an onscreen credit as a production assistant on Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill and Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull. Her first big break came when, working as a production assistant alongside her brother David in 1981, she was given a significant role as Isabella, Paul Newman's love interest in the movie Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981).^[4] That same year, she was listed as one of 12 promising new actors in John A. Willis' Screen World Vol. 33.

In 1983, she landed a regular role on NBC's television drama For Love and Honor. Other television projects in which she has appeared include: Ohara (1987), Prison Stories: Women on the Inside (1991), Crime & Punishment (1993), Disney's Gargoyles (1994), and First Time Felon (1997).

Ticotin's film work includes: Critical Condition (1987) as Rachel Atwood (alongside Richard Pryor), Total Recall (1990) as Melina (alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone), Where the Day Takes You (1992) as Officer Landers (alongside Sean Astin, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Will Smith), Falling Down (1993) as Detective Sandra Torres (alongside Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall), and Con Air (1997) (alongside Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, and John Malkovich), in which she earned an ALMA Award for her role as prison guard Sally Bishop. In 1995, she played the role of Doña Inez, the Mexican mother of Don Juan, in the tongue-in-cheek romantic comedy Don Juan DeMarco, with Johnny Depp playing the title role.

Ticotin has participated in over 40 films and television series, appearing in Man on Fire (2004) as Mariana (alongside Denzel Washington), and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005). Ticotin was cast as Vangie Gonzalez Taylor in the second season of PBS's television series American Family alongside Edward James Olmos, Esai Morales, Raquel Welch, and Kate del Castillo. Ticotin also appeared in season two of the ABC series Lost as Captain Teresa Cortez, mother of Michelle Rodriguez's character Ana Lucia Cortez.

In September 2010, she joined the cast of the NBC legal drama Law & Order: LA as Lieutenant Arleen Gonzales in place of Wanda De Jesus, who originally played the role. Ticotin reshot the scenes originally performed by De Jesus.^[5][6] She also played Dr. Marie Cerone on the ABC medical drama television series Grey's Anatomy in 2018.

Ticotin was married to actor David Caruso from 1984 to 1987, with whom she has a daughter (Greta), born in 1984.^[7] Since 1998, she has been married to actor Peter Strauss.^[8]

In her 50s, she enrolled in Columbia University, studying English, and graduating in 2019. At age 60, she was the first of her six siblings to earn a college degree.^[4][9][10]

Ticotin has co-directed the annual Rising Stars show at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School since 2010.^[3][11]

• List of Puerto Ricans