[3] Born and raised in Chicago, Rodriguez began her career in 2003 in theater productions and made her screen debut in an episode of the police procedural drama series Law & Order.

[12] She trained for four years at the Atlantic Theater Company and Experimental Theatre Wing, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2005.

On October 19, 2011, Rodriguez landed the recurring role, Beverly, in the soap opera series The Bold and the Beautiful.

[11] In 2012, Rodriguez played young hip-hop artist Majo Tenorio in the independent musical-drama film Filly Brown, for which she won an Imaged Award.

[31] She served as a producer and starred in the 2019 Netflix romantic comedy film Someone Great, where her character sang and danced to Lizzo's Truth Hurts, ultimately popularizing the song further and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

[36] Rodriguez served as the executive producer for the Disney+ show Diary of a Future President, where she also starred as the title character as an adult.

"[42] In 2016, Rodriguez began dating actor and mixed martial arts fighter Joe LoCicero, whom she met on the set of Jane the Virgin.

[51] In 2015, she became involved in Custom Ink and Naja Lingerie, both of which Rodriguez has stated have a special connection to her life and experiences.

[54] Later in 2015, PACER's (The Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights) National Bullying Prevention Center teamed up with Custom Ink and enlisted the help of various celebrities, Rodriguez among them, to raise money for their fifth annual "Be Good to Each Other Campaign".

[52] Throughout the month of October 2015, people were encouraged to purchase a celebri-tee from Custom Ink, who donated all the proceeds from bullying prevention T-shirts to PACER.

[52][56] Also in October 2015, Rodriguez was announced as a partner of Naja, a lingerie line founded in 2014 with ambitions to help women and the environment.

Because Naja is vertically integrated, thereby shortening manufacturing lead times by up to eighty percent, it allows the company's savings to go towards school books, lunches, and uniforms for employees' children, and there's also an emphasis on a flexible work environment.

[58] Naja is also environmentally-conscious in its production, as more than half of all of its pieces are made of synthetics (like nylon)—that have been fabricated from recycled plastic bottles—and makes use of digital printing as a more environmentally friendly measure.

Sparked by Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of Broadway's Hamilton, all proceeds from the song benefited those affected by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.