When you kick off 2015 with a Golden Globe win, its safe to say your year has gotten off to a pretty good start. But, when your acceptance speech captivates a culture. Then you know you’ve hit another level. Gina Rodriguez did just that when accepting her Golden Globe award and uttering the now famous words…“this award is so much more than about myself, it represents a culture that wants to see themselves as heroes.”

The Boricua beauty from Chicago started out like many an actress, developing a resume of steady television work in shows such as Bold & The Beautiful and Rizzoli & Isles as well as indie films such as Go For It and Filly Brown. Then along came the opportunity to star as Jane Villanueva in the CW show Jane the Virgin. It has essentially become the role of a lifetime, garnering her the Golden Globe in 2015 and another best actress nomination for 2016. Yet, off the screen Rodriguez is no slouch either keeping busy with various philanthropic endeavors. In March of 2015, she was announced as a new member of the HSF’s (Hispanic Scholarship Fund) Board of Directors and in October 2015, was became a partner in Naja, a lingerie line whose goal is to help women and the environment. With all she’s done and will do, its pretty to easy to say Gina Rodriguez has become that very hero she spoke of.