Krysta Rodriguez Headshot - P 2012
Getty ImagesSmash is continuing to add Broadway muscle for its upcoming second season.
Broadway player Krysta Rodriguez will join the NBC musical drama as a series regular, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
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Rodriguez will play Ana, the spunky new roommate to Katharine McPhee‘s Karen now that the newly crowned Marilyn is free from the romantic entanglements that came with her cheating boyfriend Dev (Raza Jaffrey). Ana is described as a Broadway ensemble player looking to make her mark.
Jaffrey was let go from the series in May along with Season 1 co-stars Brian d’Arcy James (Frank), Jamie Cepero (Ellis) and Will Chase (Michael Swift) .
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Rodriguez’s Broadway credits include understudy roles in productions of Spring Awakening and In the Heights as well as playing Bebe in 2007’s rendition of A Chorus Line. On the small screen, she appeared in an episode of The CW’s Gossip Girl, where she worked with new Smash showrunner Josh Safran.
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Rodriguez joins a Season 2 cast that includes new players Andy Mientus, Jeremy Jordan and Jennifer Hudson, who will recur. Rodriguez is repped by Paradigm and Principal Entertainment.
In addition, Smash‘s main ensemble player Leslie Odom Jr. (Sam) has been promoted to series regular. The character, one of Megan Hilty’s close friends and a love interest to Christian Borle’s Tom, recurred in Season 1.
Smash‘s second season returns midseason on NBC.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit
