Queens kids win Oscars

Queens raised Adrien Brody And Zoe Saldaña won Oscars on Sunday night. AP photos by Chris Pizzello and John Locher

By Ryan Schwach

A movie about Brooklyn may have won best picture, but two Queens kids won big on Oscar night.

Adrien Brody, who was raised in Woodhaven, and Zoe Saldaña, who was raised in Jackson Heights, both won acting Oscars on Sunday.

Brody won best actor for his role as László Tóth, the fictional architect at the heart of the epic “The Brutalist,” and Saldaña won best supporting actress for her performance as Rita Mora Castro, a lawyer for a Mexican cartel kingpin in the musical film “Emilia Pérez.”

It was Brody’s second Oscar after having won the same award he won Sunday over two decades ago for his performance in “The Pianist.”

Saldaña’s win was her first. “El Mal,” a song Saldaña performs in Emilia Pérez, also won best original song.

Both actors have strong roots in Queens.

The 51-year-old Brody was born in Jackson Heights, and his family once owned a home on 85th Road in Woodhaven. He went to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and graduated with a degree from CUNY Queens College.

“It made me the man that I am these days,” Brody said about his old neighborhood in an Instagram post last year.

Saldaña, who is half-Puerto Rican and half-Dominican, moved with her family to Queens from New Jersey when she was a child.

In her victory, Saldaña became the first Dominican-American to win an Oscar.

“I am a proud child of immigrant parents, with dreams and dignity and hardworking hands,” she said.