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Christina Abbi Vidal (born November 18, 1981) is an American film and television actress and singer. She is best known for her role in the Nickelodeon sitcom Taina in which she played the title character.

Biography

Early life

Vidal was born in Whitestone, an area in Queens, New York, the daughter of Puerto Rican¹ parents Anne, a secretary, and Manuel Vidal, Jr. a business and tax consultant.² She attended the Performing Arts School Of New York. When she was 17 she joined a girl group called Gemstone (along with Jade Villalon and Crystal Grant). Vidal later moved to Orlando, Florida, to proceed with the filming of Taina. Her sisters Lisa Vidal and Tanya Vidal are also actors and have appeared on TV and in theatre; she also has a brother, Christian.³

Acting career

Vidal's acting career started when one of her teachers told her there was an audition for the movie Life with Mikey (1993), starring Michael J. Fox. She auditioned and got the part of "Angie Vega", and was therefore the first Puerto Rican child actress to play a lead in an American film.⁴ Since then, Vidal has appeared in numerous films and television series, with her most notable role being Taina Maria Morales in the Nickelodeon show Taina. The sitcom was at first successful and ran for two seasons until it was cancelled in the summer of 2002. Also in 2002 she guest-starred in the hit Nickelodeon show All That in season 7.

The next year she starred in the film Freaky Friday alongside Lindsay Lohan. That same year, she starred in the short-lived ABC action TV series about police officers called 10-8: Officers on Duty until she suddenly left after two months on the show. In 2006, she did an untitled sitcom pilot along with her sisters for ABC (which was executively produced by George Lopez). The show wasn't picked up but later that year she starred in the film See No Evil, along with having a brief stint on the hit sitcom Girlfriends. In recent times, she made cameo appearances in the movies I Think I Love My Wife and Mask of the Ninja. Vidal is slated to play a supporting character in the upcoming film Magic Man, slated for release in 2009.

Music career

Christina has always been known for her musical ability. When she was in the band Gemstone, she recorded songs with herself as well as bandmate Jade Villalon performing vocals. A few of these tracks would surface many years later on albums consisting of demoes, rare tracks, and special songs of Jade Villlon's music project, Sweetbox. In 2002, she was briefly signed to MCA Records and in that time she was supposed to release her first single "Tropical" and her solo debut album "White" in the summer of 2002, but never did. That same year she provided guest vocals on the remix of Will Smith's summer hit "Nod Ya Head". She has been working hard to release an album sometime in 2008. She is also a part of Lupe Fiasco's 1st & 15th Entertainment as seen on their official Myspace page.⁵ Rumor has it she appears in Lupe Fiasco's "Superstar" music video as the celebrity next to him in the limo. She also recorded a track for the work out cd called Byou from Sabrina Bryan of the Cheetah Girls. The song she recorded was "Anything is possible".

Filmography

• Magic Man (2009)
• I Wanna Dance (2009)
• Mask of the Ninja (2008)
• All Rise (TV Pilot)[1](2008)
• ER (1 episode) (2007)
• I Think I Love My Wife (2007)
• Girlfriends (2006)
• See No Evil (2006)
• Untitled Vidal Sisters sitcom (TV pilot) (2006)
• Second Time Around (2004)
• Beck & Call (TV pilot) (2004)
• Clubhouse (1 episode) (2004)
• Freaky Friday (2003)
• Chasing Papi (2003)
• 10-8: Officers on Duty (2003)
• Hotel (TV pilot) (2003)
• Taina (2001-2003)
• Details (2000)
• Touched By An Angel (1999)
• Brink! (1998)
• F/X: The Series (1997)
• Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher (1997)
• Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996)
• The Commish (1995)
• The Cosby Mysteries (1 episode) (1994)
• Life with Mikey (1993)

Discography

Soundtracks

• Taina Soundtrack (2002)
• Freaky Friday Soundtrack (2003)
• Byou Soundtrack (2006)

References

See also

Puerto Rico portal

• List of famous Puerto Ricans

External links

• Christina Vidal at the Internet Movie Database
• Christina Vidal at TV.com
• http://www.myspace.com/christinavidal1 Christina Vidal at MySpace