Tia Nicole Texada was born on December 14, 1973 in Louisiana. She has been acting since she was young. She recently played Sgt. Maritza Cruz in the NBC Drama Third Watch. She also has appeared in movies such as Glitter, Phone Booth, Paulie, Static Shock and Spartan.

Tia Texada recently completed production on Joel Schumacher's dramatic thriller Phone Booth, starring Colin Farrell, Forest Whitaker and Ron Eldard. Last year she co-starred with Morgan Freeman, Renee Zellweger and Chris Rock in Neil LaBute's dark comedy Nurse Betty, and with Jamie Foxx and David Morse in the action comedy Bait. Other feature credits include The Thirteenth Floor, Shadow of a Doubt and From Dusk Till Dawn. In addition, Texada has appeared on television in NYPD Blue, ER and Sisters. She is a musician/recording artist. Her song "Driving You Crazy" was featured in an episode of "Dawson's Creek" (1998), and she has performed as a soloist in the California leg of the Lilith Fair tour in 1995. Tia is also a Latin dance soloist.