Lea Michele

Lea Michele Sarfati (/ˈliːə mᵻˈʃɛl sɑːrˈfɑːti/; born August 29, 1986) is an American actress, singer, songwriter and author. She began her career as a child actress on Broadway, appearing in productions of Les Misérables, Ragtime, Fiddler on the Roof and Spring Awakening. Michele is known for playing Rachel Berry on the Fox television series Glee (2009–2015), for which she received a Satellite Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and three consecutive People's Choice Awards. From 2015 to 2016, she starred as Hester Ulrich on the Fox television series Scream Queens. Michele made her feature film debut in New Year's Eve (2011), and was signed to Columbia Records in 2012. She released her debut single the following year, "Cannonball", followed by her debut studio album, Louder (2014), which debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. Her second studio album, Places, is scheduled for release in April 2017. Michele has also published two novels, Brunette Ambition (2014) and You First: Journal Your Way To Your Best Life (2015). 2Early life and education Lea Michele Sarfati was born in the Bronx, New York, the only child of Edith Thomasina (née Porcelli), a retired nurse, and Mark David Sarfati, a real estate agent and former delicatessen owner. Her mother is an Italian American Catholic with ancestors from Rome and Naples, while her father is a Sephardic Jew with ancestors from Thessaloniki, Greec