Marlene Villafane

Marlene was born in Spanish Harlem and raised on the Upper West Side. Her parents are native Puerto Ricans. Her ancestry is a mixture of French, Spanish, Portuguese, African and Taino. Her mother Nancy Martinez was once employed for VIP Violence Intervention Program in NYC; She retired in 2006. VIP is a program which is responsible for providing support and homes for battered women and their children. They are also instrumental in carrying forth its the yearly bridal marches in Washington Heights in honor of Gladys Ricart who was murdered by a former boyfriend the morning of her wedding in 1999. Her brother Fred Villafane is an accomplished engineer. and is a graduate with all honors from the Air National Guard. His youngest son and her nephew Jacob plays electric guitar. His older son Jared and the eldest daughter Ryan both attended Radford University. Ryan is a graphic artist and illustrator. Her cousins Javier Luis, Jose Correa, and Stephanie "Stephy Mar" all have blossoming careers in the arts. Javier is an up and rising Salsa singer/songwriter. Her aunt and his mother Carmen Martinez who is a talented writer provided lyrics for a few of his tracks such as Mi Otra Mitad. Marlene has recorded two tracks Mi Otra Mitad with him for his first album called Himno a La Mujer. In the second track called Me Voy a Quitar, you can hear her speaking; playing the comedic role of his godmother. They have also performed together numerous times. His single Por Amor from his second album is garnering many hits and getting huge air play on satellite radio. They have just completed filming the video for their duet Mi Otra Mitad. Jose is a successful dancer/choreographer and Stephy Mar is a successful fashion designer; both residing in Puerto Rico. At the tender age of 3, Marlene had already begun to demonstrate a gift for singing. She began taking ballet and flamenco briefly when she was 6. Therefore, her first experience on stage performing was as a dancer at 6, as an actress, 9 years old in an 8 minute play at her elementary school, and at 12 years old as a singer. Although, it took her some time to really get over her early fear of the stage as a young teen she has somehow with strong faith conquered this head-on. She attended Holy Name School of Jesus. She promptly tried out for La Guardia High School of Music and Performing Arts but was denied. She then attended St. Michael's Academy for one year. While attending there, she took voice lessons at The Harlem School of the Arts. She immediately, auditioned for the second time for LaGuardia and this time got in. She then switched as a Sophomore to La Guardia majoring in voice. Her fellow classmates were Marlon Wayans, Omar Epps, and singer/songwriter Andrea Martin. Afterwards, she attended the Manhattan School of Music for Classical Voice. She studied voice with Maitland Peters and Classical performance with Gabor Carelli, former teacher to Taylor Dayne. Right after graduation, she went on to tour Croatia and Bosnia along with eleven others selected from Manhattan School of Music to perform in an original mass for twelves choruses from twelve parts of the world. With Jose Carreras singing the lead they performed representing the US. She then landed her first major tour; "Porgy and Bess" with Living Arts playing Clara & traveling internationally. Immediately after, while in New Zealand she landed the role to understudy Julie, as well as perform in the ensemble for the Ausralian tour of Harold Prince's "ShowBoat" and went on to play Julie, opposite Australian renowned actor Barry Otto, father of Miranda Otto. Her very first television appearance was as a guest in the talk show "Christina" for Univision. This episode was an homage to LaGuardia High School. She was a cast member for an underground Latin sketch comedy show !"Que Le Parece"!? (2005-2006), playing various characters, which ran close to a year after hours on Telemundo. She has also appeared in numerous shorts and independent films such Jill Wisoff's Creating Karma as a yoga therapy student which starred Saturday Night Fever's Karen Lynn Gorney. She played the Leading Lady to Melvin Van Peebles's character in his musical Unmitigated Truth in which he also directed at the Algonquin Theatre in 2009. She has garnered the IMTA's Grand Prize for Voice in 2009 In 2011 she appeared in Celebrity Ghost Stories as the ghost of Billie Holiday. She has also made appearances as a model in Despierta America, Al Despertar and Las Comadres Con Gloria. In 2010 she joined the cast of David Lamb's Platanos and Collard Greens and can still now be seen seasonally playing the Dominican mother Samana. In 2011 Royce Reed of Basketball Wives joined the cast briefly playing the role of the African American power student Malady. Marlene is presently an MTG All Stars orchestra musical member in which Hector Leguillow is founder. They perform music from the greatest Latin legends of the music world such as Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Frankie Ruiz and La Lupe to name a few. She has recorded and performed as a lead & backup singer in concert at Lincoln Center for Coati Mundi of Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Cory Daye of the Savannah Band, Joe Bataan, and N'Dea Davenport of the Brand New Heavies. This actor, impressionist, lyric soprano with a crossover look, is now writing a one woman show in which she will do impressions of some of her favorite women in show business who've really inspired and impacted her; such as Gracie Allen, Madeline Khan, Julie Andrews, Fran Drescher Shirley Bassey, Carol Channing, Sade & Diana Ross. She loves hiking, meditating, Tao Yoga, jogging, creative writing, watching old films and karaoke. She is looking forward to all the new opportunities coming her way to grow more and work more consistently.