Gina Torres is a native of New York City, where as a young girl she dreamed of being a big movie star and singing on the Broadway stage. She began her journey by studying voice at The High School of Music and the Arts (now named La Guardia High School of Music and Art.

Gina Torres stars as Hel in the futuristic new action-adventure series Cleopatra 2525, premiering in national syndication the week of January 17, 2000. A heroic warrior whose father died fighting for a better life, Hel is a natural leader committed to that tradition. Guided by a voice she hears through a receptor implanted in her jaw, she spearheads an ongoing mission to reclaim the surface of the earth from the deadly airborne creatures that have driven mankind underground.

Widely known for her recurring role as Nebula in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Gina starred in the Fox television movies Dark Angel and M.A.N.T.I.S. and has guest-starred in numerous series, including NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Xena: Warrior Princess, Profiler, La Femme Nikita, The Gregory Hines Show, House of Buggin' and Sesame Street. She has also appeared in the feature films The Substance of Fire and Bed of Roses.

Gina was born in New York City and grew up the youngest of three children in a close-knit Cuban American family. As a very young girl, she loved to perform for friends and family, but it wasn't until years later that she told anyone about her aspirations to become an actor. As a teenager, she attended New York City's High School of Music and Art, where she supplemented her academic studies with three hours of singing every day.

A gifted mezzo soprano, she was trained in opera and jazz and also sang in a gospel choir. Following high school, Gina decided to pursue acting. While working as a receptionist at Lincoln Center Theater, she was approached by the casting director who was holding auditions for the revival of Anything Goes. Though there was no part in the show for Gina, the casting director offered to take a look at what she could do. As a result of that audition, she was introduced to an agent and immediately landed the lead in Dreamgirls at the Downtown Cabaret in Connecticut.

Over the next several years, Gina performed in numerous plays and musicals. She amassed an impressive list of stage credits, including the Broadway productions of The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public and Face Value; regional productions of Pericles, Heliotrope Bouquet, Sheila's Day and The Wiz; and Off-Broadway productions of Antigone, A Raisin in the Sun, Jelly Belly, Blood Wedding, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Amphitryon.

Gina made her television debut as a guest star on the popular ABC daytime drama One Life to Live and recurred on the show as a number of different characters, ranging from an aerobicsinstructor to a Spanish contessa. In 1993, she won a starring role as the medical examiner of the mythical city of Ocean in the Fox TV movie M.A.N.T.I.S. The production marked her first project with Renaissance Pictures executive producers Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi, who soon cast her as the beautiful pirate captain Nebula in their hit series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. In an amusing twist of fate, she filmed her first of many Hercules episodes immediately after starring as Hercules' mother in the Classic Stage Company production of Amphitryon in New York. She also appeared as Cleopatra in Tapert and Raimi's enormously popular Xena: Warrior Princess.

During the past four years, Gina has guest-starred in more than a dozen television series, honing her skills in both drama and comedy. Her work with Renaissance Pictures proved so successful that when casting began on Cleopatra 2525, the producers knew right away that she would be perfect for the role of Hel, the fiercely dedicated and commanding leader of the Cleopatra team.