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Lauren Vélez (born November 2, 1964) is an American actress of Puerto Rican descent and the twin sister of actress Loraine Vélez. Her most notable roles are as Maria LaGuerta on Dexter, Detective Nina Moreno on Fox's New York Undercover, and Dr. Gloria Nathan on HBO's controversial jaildrama,Oz.

Career Vélez landed her first job performing in the national touring company of the musical Dreamgirls. Vélez also played understudy for actress Phylicia Rashad in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. She also performed Off-Broadway in the productions of Much Ado About Nothing and Fasade In 1995, Vélez landed her first major television role.

She was cast as Nina Moreno, a policewoman in the TV series New York Undercover.That same year, she also made her film debut as Lisette Linares in the movie I Like It Like That alongside Rita Moreno and Jon Seda. She was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award and The Desi Award for Best Lead Actress. The movie was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards and won an NYFCCA award.

Another TV series in which she performed was HBO's jail drama, Oz. She also acted in the feature film City Hall, with Al Pacino. In 1997, Vélez starred in Buscando un Sueño (In Search of a Dream), the first Spanish language film sanctioned by SAG.

Vélez plays a supporting role on Showtime's series Dexter, again playing a police lieutenant. On June 24, 2006, she won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2006 Long Island International Film Expo for her performance as Roseanne Crystal in the independent feature film, Serial.

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