Raquel Castro | Biography

Raquel Castro, the lovable and charming actress who captured our hearts in the movie Jersey Girl, showcased her remarkable singing and dance talent to the world on season one of NBC's hit show "The Voice."

As a ﬁnalist, Raquel recalls her most memorable stage moment: "Performing "Lady Marmalade" with Christina Aguilera and the team was magical so yes, dreams do come true!"

Raquel was born in Long Island, NY, on November 17, 1994 to an Italian mother and Puerto Rican father. With her father being a singer-songwriter and her mother an acting coach, Raquel's path to stardom was nurtured and encouraged from an early age. By age four, she was regularly appearing on Sesame Street and Nick Jr. However, at age seven, Raquel became a break-out star playing the lead role in the feature ﬁlm Jersey Girl alongside megastars Jennifer Lopez and Ben Afﬂeck.

Raquel felt a strong bond with her on-screen mom. "Jennifer Lopez has been my role model from the start. I wore out my VCR tape of the movie Selena, probably watching it a million times; when I found out I had been chosen to play her daughter in a feature-ﬁlm, OMG I was screaming like crazy."

Soon after, Raquel charmed the talk-show circuit appearing as a guest on "The Tonight Show " with Jay Leno and "Ellen." She was also the only guest to come back and co-host with Ryan Seacrest on his show "On Air with Ryan Seacrest." At age 10, Raquel was appointed the youngest correspondent ever for Entertainment Tonight's Kid's Choice Awards, where she had the opportunity to interview high-proﬁle celebrities including Jim Carey, Cameron Diaz, Queen Latifa and Adam Sandler.

Raquel's acting career continued to ﬂourish as she appeared/guest starred in Law & Order SVU, and the world premiere of Broadway's "White Christmas" as Susan Waverly. She also made her first music video debut as "Little Nicole" in Ludacris/ Mary J. Blidge video "Runaway Love."

Her ﬁrst grown-up role was playing the love interest in Rosie O'Donnell's Lifetime movie America. This fall, she will co-star in the Canadian TV show "Winging It" where she will also sing one of her original songs.

After competing on "The Voice" Raquel's online popularity has blossomed. Her You Tube channel raquelcx3 has garnished over a million views and a contribution to that popularity is her cover of Christina' Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man" as well as Selena's “Amor Prohibido” which shows her versatility as a bilingual/Spanish singer. Most recently, Raquel opened for the artist "Miguel " and performed at Beatstock 2011.

In this next chapter, Raquel hopes to dedicate herself to her music." My music style is R & B pop with an urban ﬂavor. My lyrics will aim to inspire and empower. I've always looked up to artist like Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Rhianna, Selena and of course Jennifer Lopez. Their music moves me and I too hope to bring that to my generation." Raquel and her creative team are currently focusing on recording her album. Her first single release "Diary" is now out on Itunes.