Born and raised in Los Angeles, I first fell in love with acting when my grandmother would visit from Canada and we would enlist all the family, including the cats, to make movies in our living room–scripts, costumes, sets, and all. I attended performing arts middle and high schools where we took intensive training in acting, dance, and voice. By the time I played Helena in our senior production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I was well and truly hooked. On graduation, I completed two years of college then decided to take time out to work, travel, take classes to hone my skills, and participate in community theater in and around LA. I had several years of Meisner, Adler, and Strasberg with Lea Floden, eight years of vocal coaching with Mary Jo DuPrey, and lessons at several dance studios. Lea suggested that I audition for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow and I was delighted beyond words when I was accepted for their three year BA program in musical theater. One of the most interesting aspects of the program was its emphasis on training well-rounded storytellers. Not only did we develop skills in acting, dance, and voice, the program had an emphasis on music and actor musicianship, so we each got training for a specific instrument. I learned to play guitar and in our final year we were our own actor-muso ensemble in 9 to 5. I also really appreciated our training in the Nadine George voice technique, which helped me develop my own way of working, from the way I warm up to the way I approach scenework. We had amazingly good tuition from faculty and guest instructors, and the curriculum was excellent. It was a stroke of incredible good luck that one of the three chosen for my year was Sweeny Todd, my favorite work of my favorite composer. I was cast as the Beggar Woman, a role I adored despite the fact that being pushed, shoved, and dragged around the stage turned me black and blue. In fact it could have been the death of me when my costume got caught in the machinery working the trap door and nearly hanged me! That would have been a dramatic end to my story but I lived to act another day. My passion for theater is inseparable from my politics and my commitment to working to attain a more inclusive and equitable society. Not only do stories nourish our hearts and minds; they also open our eyes and make us rethink our comfortable assumptions. They cause us to see the world through someone else’s eyes; they help us see the humanity we share with the most marginalized. As a performer with ADHD, I’m acutely aware of how neurodivergence can be both a challenge and a blessing. Hyper-aware of our own thought processes, we constantly observe other people in order to understand them and to connect with them authentically. I believe this gives us natural empathy. Telling stories through performance is what drives me. Whether it's through song, dance, or text, I am always striving to bring authenticity and depth to each character I play. I am particularly interested in amplifying underrepresented voices and diverse stories in the arts. I believe performance is a powerful tool for fostering empathy and understanding. My ultimate goal is to use performance and storytelling to challenge the status quo and bring stories to the stage that celebrate the complexities and beauty of the human experience. In my downtime, I love reading good books because, like theater, it offers entertainment, enlightenment, and escape to a different time and place. I love traveling, drawing, fashion, playing guitar, learning other languages, doing crossword puzzles, and exploring hidden corners of Los Angeles. I like taking online courses in graphics and web design and I love to hang out in bookstores and independent coffee shops.