Facts

  • Changed last name from “Mentzel” to “Menzel” because it was always pronounced incorrectly.
  • Idina and husband, Taye Diggs, married on January 11, 2003 in Jamaica
    (at the same location where he filmed his breakout film How Stella Got Her Groove Back)

  • The term “Tidina” was coined in 1996 by hardcore Rent fans (aka RENT-heads) when referring to Taye and Idina as a couple
  • Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Rocky Road
  • Worked as a wedding and Bar Mitzvah singer for 8 years, from the age of 16 to 24 [1987-1995], until she was cast in the Off-Broadway production of Rent
  • Idina is a perpetual pessimist.
  • Graduated from Syosset High School in Syosset, New York [1989]
  • Received a BFA in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts [1993]
  • Dreamgirls is Idina’s favorite musical
  • The West Wing is her favorite TV show
  • Favorite book: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
  • Idina was named after her great grandmother, Ida, and her name is Hebrew for “gentle”
  • Barbra Streisand is one of her many idols
  • The Lady & the Tramp is her favorite Disney movie.
  • Has two adopted cats: a boy named Coltraine and a girl named Ella (after Ella Fitzgerald) – Idina calls them her “jazz cats”!
  • Idina and Taye adopted a dog, naming him Sammy Davis, a Yorkshire “Yorkie” Terrier – another “jazz” pet! [2005]
  • Idina was slated to star in a TV pilot for FOX called “Bev”, however she left the production before it could get made. She would have played the title character, who is a young woman making a new life for herself while raising 3 children from 3 different husbands.
  • Height: 5’5″
  • Idina is left-handed
  • She wears size 8.5 (US) shoes and has 40+ pairs
  • Idina and her Rent co-star, Adam Pascal, attended the same High School and even had the same orthodontist!
  • Broke a rib on her left side by falling through a trap door during one of her last performances of Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway [January 8, 2005]
  • Father, Stuart Mentzel, sells pajamas for a living; Mother, Helene Mentzel, is a psychologist
  • Parents got a divorce when Idina was 15 years old

    Know any more fun Idina-facts? drop the webmistress an e-mail.

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