Last updated on July 1st, 2025 at 12:50 pm
Olga Merediz is an American actress and singer. Merediz originated the role of Abuela Claudia in the Broadway musical In the Heights, for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical.
She played the role for the show’s entire Broadway run and reprised the role in the film adaptation.
Merediz was born in Guantánamo, Cuba, on February 15, 1956. She left Cuba with her family when she was five years old for Miami, Florida. Thereafter, she relocated with her family to Puerto Rico, where she grew up.
Merediz graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Newcomb College, the former female counterpart to Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Full Name: Olga Merediz
Date of Birth: February 15, 1956
Birth Place: Guantánamo, Cuba
Nationality: American
Marital Status: Single
Zodiac sign: Aquarius
Qualification: H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College
Net worth: $3 Million
Career:
After making her film debut in 1984’s The Brother from Another Planet, Merediz has appeared in a number of films, including The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), City of Hope (1991), Evita (1996), Music of the Heart (1999), K-Pax (2001), Remember Me (2010), Custody (2016), Humor Me (2017), and the reprise of her 2008 Tony Award-nominated Broadway role as Abuela Claudia, in the film adaptation In the Heights (2021). She also portrayed Alma Madrigal in Encanto (2021).
Her television credits, in both dramas and comedies, include recurring and guest roles in Diary of a Future President, New Amsterdam, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Orange Is the New Black, and Madam Secretary.
She has been a series regular in the UK television series Bounty Hunters and the comedy Saint George, has appeared in episodes of both Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, and appeared as herself as a judge on Throwdown with Bobby Flay.
Awards:
At the 2008 Tony Awards, she received a nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for the Broadway incarnation of In the Heights. In addition to her Tony Award nomination, Merediz won a 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance for her role in the off-Broadway run of In the Heights, as well as a 2003 HOLA Tespis Award from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors.
In 2013, Latina magazine named her as one of the 50 Best Latin Singers and Pop Stars of All Time. According to the magazine, “The Cuban Broadway star knows how to dominate a live stage and owns it!”
Films:
- The Brother from Another Planet
- The Milagro Beanfield War
- Q&A
- City of Hope
- The Super
- Boomerang
- Angie
- Drunks
- Evita
- Humor Me
- Fair Market Value
- Godmothered
- In the Heights
- Encanto
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