Born on November 5, 1967 in Bronx, New York, Judy Reyes is best known for her role on the hit NBC medical comedy Scrubs. She is of Dominican descent. Despite Judy Reyes’ relatively late start in show business, she has become one of the most watched faces in television today. Reyes took an interest in acting when she was studying at Hunter College in Manhattan. Growing up as one of four daughters, Judy has a twin sister who at one point appeared on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
That interest eventually led Reyes to her first starring role in the 1992 independent film Jack and his Friends. She then moved on to do more acting in the New York Theater and later co-founded the LABryinth Theater Company, a theater which provides a venue for persons of different cultures to express themselves through acting. However, Reyes did not limit herself to stage projects. She has also gone on to star in, produce and direct several independent films, two of which are Taino and the award-winning Glow Ropes.
Reyes’ most notable role, however, is still on Scrubs, as Nurse Carla Espinosa, the feisty and aggressive lady-love of surgical intern Chris Turk. Other than this, her other film credits include Bringing Out the Dead by renowned director Martin Scorsese, Washington Heights, the made-for-television The Prosecutors, and the Hallmark movie Our House. She is also a big aficionado of independently produced films, appearing in Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God, Be Back by Five. Apart from acting, she co-produced a short film called Taino with her husband. The film was screened at the 1999 New York International Film Festival and the 2001 Los Angeles Latino Film Festival. The success of this endeavor had Reyes wanting to produce more independent films. After Scrubs, she appeared in the ABC drama Off the Map and in the 2011 film Gun Hill Road. In 2013, she became part of the ABC series Devious Maids.
- She became interested in acting while attending Hunter College in Manhattan, New York. She is a founding member of the Labyrinth Theatre Company, a multi-cultural acting space in Manhattan.
- She is one of four daughters, three of whom are actors.
- Her fraternal twin sister is Joselin Reyes.
- She played a nurse in both the television series "Scrubs" (2001) and the film Bringing Out the Dead (1999).
In the Fall of 2006 she broke her hip, hence affecting the way some of her shots had to be filmed sitting down on "Scrubs" (2001).This is most noticeable in the episode "My Musical" where she was filmed sitting during most of the episode except with the song "Dominican" which was filmed 5 weeks later than the rest of the show when she had fully healed.