Tanesha Ross’ path onto the stage is remarkable for its lack of intent. Sure, the star of Village Theatre’s upcoming musical “In The Heights” has been singing for as long as she can remember — she even appeared on the first season of “American Idol” to perform a rendition of Aretha Franklin’s  “Until You Came Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do).”

“I kind of tripped and fell into musical theater,” she said.

Ross has appeared in dozens of professional productions, both in Washington state at Village and 5th Avenue theatres, and on the East Coast. She was in the 2010 national tour of “Hair,” and the Broadway run a year later.

But for a long time, Ross didn’t consider acting a potential career. During her tenure at North Central High School in Spokane, Ross only appeared in one production — “Once on This Island,” during her freshman year. She went on to study voice in college, but made her living as a banker for seven years immediately before, during and after school. Then, during her junior year in college, a voice instructor took note of her capacity for emotional expression and gave her some free career advice.

“The teacher told me I was an actor,” Ross said. “And then I started thinking, ‘Wait… what does that mean?!’”

She was skeptical, but she began auditioning for professional roles, telling herself she could always go back to the bank — sometimes she still tells herself that, she said.

Nevertheless, the new career path stuck. She repeatedly landed roles in local professional productions before moving to New York City. She worked in the Big Apple for four years before relocating to Issaquah in spring.

In “In The Heights,” Ross plays Nina Rosario, a young woman struggling to tell her parents she’s dropped out of Stanford.

“She’s the only child of immigrant parents who moved from Puerto Rico to Manhattan,” Ross said. “She’s a bright kid, a hard worker … but when she leaves she’s never been away from home before. Things don’t go quite as well as she hoped they’d go. So she’s finding where she belongs in the world.”

You can see Ross in “In The Heights” beginning Sept. 18. The show runs at the Francis J. Gaudette Theater through Oct. 26.