LI's Raquel Castro to compete on NBC's 'Songland'
Singer-actress Raquel Castro is featured on Monday's episode of "Songland." Credit: NBC / Trae Patton
A seasoned singer-actress at 25, with stints on everything from "Sesame Street" to "Empire," Long Islander Raquel Castro now competes Monday night at 10 on the NBC songwriter competition "Songland."
Thanks to her mom.
"I had watched season 1 of 'Songland' and I thought it was amazing," says Castro, the daughter of Port Jefferson Station's Albee Castro, a singer turned home-improvement contractor, and Kathleen Castro, a former songwriter-actress. "But I never really had the confidence to think that I would ever be able to get on the show. Like, I love to write songs, but I don't know if I'm on that level." Her mother, however, "sent my songs in online without my knowledge. My mom," she adds, laughing, "does not take no for an answer, even from her own daughter!"
On the episode, shot in January in Los Angeles, Raquel Castro pitches her work to two-time Grammy Award-winning R&B artist H.E.R. (née Gabi Wilson).
Born in Howard Beach, Queens, and raised in Port Jefferson Station from about age 2 after her actor brother David (Freeform's "Shadowhunters") was born, Castro currently resides in Mattituck with her boyfriend, with whom she is waiting out the pandemic shutdown. She and her brother also share two older sisters from their Puerto Rican father's previous marriage and an older brother from their Italian American mother's prior marriage. "We don't say half brother or half sister. We're very, very close," Castro says.
Her acting career began with the HBO children's show "A Little Curious" in 2000 and has gone on to include the title role in the Kevin Smith movie "Jersey Girl" (2004), playing Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's daughter, and series work from "Third Watch" to "Empire," as recurring character Marisol of the girl group Mirage a Trois. As a singer, she has released singles, cracked Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart as featured vocalist on Xenia Ghali's “Places,” and competed on season 1 of NBC's "The Voice" at age 16, making it into Christina Aguilera's team.
In a nod to the difficulty of a show-business career even for someone with such prolific credits, the bubbly and energetic Newfield High School graduate says, “A lot of the part-time work I've done to make ends meet and pay the bills has been in hospitality. I've worked at Macari Vineyards, at Jamesport Farm Brewery in Riverhead bartending, and at wine shops."
Raquel Castro appears on the "Songland" episode featuring recording artist H.E.R., which airs Monday night at 10 p.m. Credit: NBC / Trae Patton
Her future career plans veer more toward music than to acting. "I loved acting and I loved becoming a different character," Castro says, "but I think music is where my heart is because I am my own character — I'm just myself and I get to share my own stories. I can just be myself and be proud of that and just be happy in my own skin."
