ABOUT ME

My first introduction to Shakespeare? Playing Hermia in a gender-swapped production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. After a performance, a Draco Malfoy type cornered me in the cafeteria: "Don't take this the wrong way, but you know who Steve Buscemi is? You look just like him." I was horrified. What insecure 17-year-old wants to be compared to Mr. Pink — in a dress and a wig, no less?

It wasn’t the last time I would be compared to an off-beat character actor. 

At the College of the Holy Cross where I double majored in Theatre & Political Science: Don Knotts, after playing the bumbling policeman Shauva in Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

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At Ohio University where I completed my MFA in Acting: Michael Emerson, after playing the possessive, shattered psychopath Lenny in José Rivera's Marisol.

Post-grad in NYC: Michael Sheen, after playing the flamboyant Lucio in New York Classical Theatre's Off-Broadway Measure for Measure.

In Regional Theatre: Jim Parsons, after playing the whip-smart servant Cliton in The Liar at Centenary Stage Company.

I am no longer horrified by these comparisons, but inspired by the breadth of material that these actors have tackled in their careers, opening the doors for me to shape-shift through a diverse range of opportunities in my own career: comedy and drama, classical and contemporary, stage and screen.