Born to Javier Rodriguez (Of Puerto Rican descent) and Carmen Milady Pared (of the Dominican Republic) she had ten half-siblings (or siblings) and was raised by her religious grandmother. Moving to the Dominican Republic at the age of eight and lived in Puerto Rico at age eleven. But her heart was in New Jersey. Dropping out of high school at the age of seventeen, Rodriguez earned her GED.

An actress who had worked as an extra in movies such as Cradle Will Rock, Summer Of Sam and For The Love Of The Game, Rodriguez found an advertisement in the Backstage magazine for a casting of a female Latino. That was her hit right there. Girlfight. Beating out 350 girls for the part of Diana Guzman who becomes a teenage boxer to control her anger and life. Her first real audition, critics and audiences recognized her immensely.

Starring in Fast And The Furious with Vin Diesel, Resident Evil with Milla Jovovich and Eric Mabius, and later S.W.A.T. with Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrel, also noted was the role of surfer girl Eden in Blue Crush.

The rest is all history.