‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Star Stephanie Beatriz Is Being Her Best Self
It’s hiatus season in Los Angeles and the sun is shining. A perfect morning for a patio and some elaborate nut-berry-yogurt concoction called an “Opulent.” “That’s the most L.A. drink I’ve ever had in my life,” says Stephanie Beatriz, the actor you probably know best as Rosa, the hard-edged, leather-clad foil to Andy Samberg in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. While its fifth season premieres this month, Beatriz is enjoying her downtime. In addition to her lazy mid-week mornings, she’s wrapping up a star turn in a new indie film, The Light of the Moon, in which she plays a woman struggling to cope after being sexually assaulted — a definite departure from her mostly light-hearted day job.
Even on her network sitcom, though, Beatriz is pushing the envelope. “Rosa’s a super-badass, smart, funny, dope female character,” she says. “That doesn’t happen enough on TV.” Seeing new takes on old character types is also why Beatriz is obsessed with the musical Hamilton. She spent part of this off-week singing one of her favourite songs on Twitter for a charity drive organized by the show’s writer and star (and a close friend), Lin-Manuel Miranda. “In that first song, where they sing the line, ‘Another immigrant coming up from the bottom,’ I started to cry in the theatre,” says Beatriz, who was born in Argentina and grew up in Texas. “I thought, They’re talking about me!”
Sitting in Los Angeles, drinking a ridiculous drink, it’s evident just how far up she’s come. “I just had pancakes. This afternoon I’m going car shopping,” she says. “I’m living my best life.”
