Raquel Castro (born November 17, 1994) is an American actress and singer. She is known for starring in the 2004 film Jersey Girl as Gertie Trinké, the daughter of Ollie Trinké (Ben Affleck) and Gertrude Steiney (Jennifer Lopez), for which Castro won the Young Artist Award for the Best Performance in a Feature Film – Young Actress Age Ten or Younger. She was a contestant in the American version of The Voice.

Background

Castro's father is Puerto Rican, and her mother is of Italian and Jewish descent.

Career

Acting

Castro made her acting debut in an episode of the television series, Third Watch. She then played the daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's characters in the 2004 film Jersey Girl, directed by Kevin Smith.

A single called "Game Over" was released on January 29, 2013. Castro wrote it with the help of the IDA Program.

In 2019, Castro provided vocals for the theme song to the Netflix Original Series Carmen Sandiego.

Castro was also on season 2 of NBC's Songland, where she presented her song "Wrong Places" to H.E.R., where she picked her song to put on her album.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+ Film

! Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

|-

| 2004

| Jersey Girl

| Gertie Trinké

| Film debut

|-

| 2006

| Little Fugitive

| Destiny

| Remake

|-

| 2007

| Tracks of Color

| Carmen

| Short film

|-

| 2009

| America

| Liza

|

|-

| 2009

| The Ministers

| Nereida

|

|-

| 2010

| Brooklyn's Finest

| Katherine

|

|-

| 2016

| From Nowhere

| Alyssa

|

|-

| 2017

| Heavenly Charm

| Izabella Sanchez

| Starring role

|-

| 2017

| Ten

| Lori

|

|-

| 2019

| Already Gone

| Carmen

|

|-

| 2021

| This Is the Night

| Anna Tocci

|

|}

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+ Television

! Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

|-

| 2002

| Third Watch

| Moira Kenney

| Episode: "The Greater Good"

|-

| 2005

| Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

| Emma Boyd

| Episode: "Alien"

|-

| 2011

| The Voice

| Herself

| Season 1 contestant; member of Christina Aguilera's team

|-

| 2011

| Wingin' It

| JenJen

| Episode: "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel"

|-

| 2014

| Awkward

| Shiri

| Episode: "Touched by an Angel"

|-

| 2014–2015

| Liv and Maddie

| South Salamanca

| Episodes: "BFF-A-Rooney" and "SPARF-A-Rooney"

|-

| 2015–2016

| Empire

| Marisol

| 6 episodes

|-

| 2016

| Blue Bloods

| Martina Fernandez

| Episode: "The Road to Hell"

|-

| 2020

| Songland

| Herself

| Episode: "H.E.R."

|-

|}

Discography

Albums as part of Empire cast

{| class="wikitable"

!align="left"| Year

!align="left"| Artist

!align="left"| Album

!align="left"| Notes

|-

| 2015 :

| Empire cast

| Empire: Season 2 Volume 1

| Track 9: "Runnin'"

|-

| 2016 :

| Empire cast

| Empire: Season 2 Volume 2

| Track 2: "Crown"

|-

|}

Songwriting credits

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

|-

! scope="col"| Song

! scope="col"| Year

! scope="col"| Artist

! scope="col"| Album

|-

! scope="row"| "Wrong Places"

| 2020

| H.E.R.

|

|}

Awards and nominations

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Year !! Group !! Award !! Result !! Film

|-

| 2005 :

| Young Artist Award

| Best Performance in a Feature Film – Young Actress Age Ten or Younger

|

| Jersey Girl

|}

References

  • JoBlo interview (March 25, 2004)