Early life Cotto was born and raised in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York to Puerto Rican-American parents. She studied drama at the High School of Performing Arts in New York City. She trained at the William Esper Studio and studied dance.
Career After studying dance, she was given a small role in Lean on Me. After being away from acting she made an appearance in Law & Order. She was later featured in films Girl 6 and Personals. In 2002, Cotto had her first starring role in the feature film Empire playing John Leguizamo's girlfriend Carmen. She starred in the television series Kingpin until its cancellation in 2004. She was featured in Cinemax's short film entitled Stories of Lost Souls alongside James Gandolfini. Her other film credits include Splinter, Broken Circle, Rockaway and Illegal Tender.
She has also made guest appearances on many television shows such as Trinity, Oz, CSI: Miami and Cuts; has performed in an off-Broadway entitled "Cloud Tectonics" in the role of Celestina Del Sol; and has appeared on the cover of popular magazines such as Open Your Eyes (OYE) twice, Tinta Latina and Profile.
She has an adaptable nature.
She performed in a comedy troupe at the original Village Gate and Carolines Comedy Club in New York City.
She wanted to be a dancer more than anything in the world but knew it could destroy her body early on to do it professionally...so she chose acting instead.
She is a Multipotentialite; she does various things well.
She had to overcome immense obstacles to get this far. She gained survival skills as a little girl and organically immersed herself in the arts as a means to release and express emotion.
She has been called a cat and dog whisperer by different friends on many separate occasions.
Went to LaGuardia HS with Jennifer Aniston, Chastity Bono (now Chad), Kirk Acevedo (Oz), and Alex Desert (Swingers).
She is passionate about linguistics and the study of language and words and their connection to culture and societies.
Her first passion was dancing and reading.
Loves voiceover work.
Underwent intense voice and diction training.
She loves public speaking.
She is a closet philosopher and advocate of the dissemination of information so that it is accessible to those who desire it.
Used to be a race car driver in another lifetime; she loves driving.
Her second passion was singing and writing poetry. She's been writing poetry since she was eight years old. her first poem ever was called "Gooey Gum".
Loves philosophizing about life and spirituality.
She loves sports cars and muscle cars.
She was introverted as a child.
She has diverse features. (Most cannot tell where she's from). People often guess: Persian/Iran. Italian Brazilian, Greek, Israeli. Armenian. Indian, Costa Rican, and yes even Anglo.
She received an honorable recognition for her acting work by the National Endowment for the arts when she was at La Guardia High School of the Arts.