Dania Ramirez was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She was discovered by a modeling scout at the age of 15, while she was working in a New York City convenience store, and got a small role in a soda commercial. Later, Ramirez decided that she wanted to seriously persue acting and began studying at the Actor's Workshop in New York City under Flo Greenberg. She graduated from Montclair State University in 1999. Afterwords, Ramirez moved to Los Angeles, California to persue her acting career.
She has appeared in several music videos over the years, including Jay-Z's "Streets is Watching" in 1998, LL Cool J's "Hush" in 2005 (which was also directed by her fiancè, Jessy Terrero), and Santana's "Into the Night" in 2007. Ramirez also played the main character in Wisin y Yandel's music Video, "Dime Que Te Paso," in which she played the wife of a military man stationed in Iraq and finds out that he has died at war.
In 1997, Ramirez appeared as an extra in the HBO film Subway Stories. It was then that she met filmmaker Spike Lee, who later cast in in his 2004 film She Hate Me. Ramirez also played older sister "Laurie" in the 2004 movie Fat Albert. She also played Callisto, one of The Omegas, in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand. She then went on to star in The 5th Cammandment in 2008.
Ramirez appeared as a minor character, named Caridad, in the final episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She also plays Blanca Selgado, a recurring role in the sixth season of The Sopranos.
Most recently, Ramirez portrays the character of Maya on the TV series Heroes.
