Nicole Margaret "Nikki" Blonsky is an American actress, singer, and dancer.
Background
Blonsky was born and raised in Great Neck, New New York She is the daughter of Karen (née Smeja), a school aide, and Carl Blonsky, a Jewish municipal worker for the village water pollution control district. She is of Czechoslovakian and Irish descent on her mother"s side.
Education
Blonsky attended Great Neck North Middle School, and attended John L. Miller Great Neck North High School for one year.
Career
She is best known for her role as Tracy Turnblad in the 2007 film Hairspray and as Maggie Baker in the 2008 film Queen Sized. She is also known for her starring role in the American Broadcasting Company Family original series Huge. She began singing at age three and started taking vocal lessons at the age of eight.
She was raised Roman Catholic.
Then she switched to Village School, an alternative high school with only 50 students. After school each day, she would attend the after-school theatre program at William A. Shine Great Neck South High School, where she participated in productions of Les Misérables, Sweeney Todd, Kiss Maine, Kate, and the title role of the opera Carmen.
Blonsky said that she yearned to play the role of Tracy Turnblad since seeing Hairspray on Broadway on her 15th birthday. In 2007, while working at Cold Stone Creamery, she found out she had been cast in Adam Shankman"s 2007 film adaptation.
Blonsky began work on her debut album in September 2007 and collaborated with alternative rock musician Duncan Sheik on a number of tracks.
Her first single, "On a High", a cover of one of Sheik"s songs, was featured in Blonsky"s Lifetime Original Movie Queen Sized. On December 18, 2007, she performed with the Turtle Creek Chorale in her first solo performance. On June 22, 2008, she sang the American National Anthem in the pre-race ceremony at the 2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.
In 2009, Blonsky made a guest appearance on Ugly Betty, in the episode "Dressed for Success." Blonsky also co-starred in the Music Television mystery series Valemont in 2009.
She later starred in the short lived American Broadcasting Company Family series Huge, which premiered in June 2010, but was cancelled three months later. In 2013, Blonsky appeared in two episodes of the National Broadcasting Company Broadway drama series Smash.
Later that year, she appeared in the film adaptation of Geography Club.