I was your typical girly girl. Blonde curls, permed... naturally, 80’s bangs and an attraction to anything frilly. My favorite past times were twirling around in the living room and playing dress up in my mother’s old dresses. On my days off I would make up dances to Bette Midler songs, put on plays with stuffed animals, make puppet shows, and reenact the entirety of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin with my best friend. We’d play every character.... it’s on VHS somewhere. My mom felt it was time to harness this “creativity” and put me in ballet class. It stuck. My family moved to Eugene Oregon when I was 7. It was there that I danced intensely for 18 years of my life. When I was 16, I went to a 5 week ballet intensive held at Vassar College. It was a game changer for me. After a musical theater class given by Bill Hastings, I fell in love with Fosse and musical theater in general. One weekend we went on an excursion to New York City. There I saw my very first Broadway Musical, Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters. I was hooked. I decided, post ballet camp, that I never wanted to be in a ballet company, (I like food too much). My sophomore year of college, I moved to New York City to attend The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. It was like culture shock, moving from gorgeous Oregon to a more gritty type of beauty. While at AMDA I fell in love with acting and my desire to be an actress was solidified.
I’ve been in New York for 7 years. I’ve learned that this industry is much different then I could ever imagine. Casting is a pretty brutal process. A certain amount of talent brings a person here, but its patience, perseverance, connections, and luck that get you where you want to be. Though I’ve been lucky enough to work Off Broadway, I still have the great dream of being in a Broadway musical, it would be the highest honor. I also learned, quite quickly, that New York is extremely expensive and as an actor, you need to have a flexible schedule. So I began to work in restaurants and as a cater water. You’ve seen Party Down.... it’s spot on. I would consider myself the Lizzy Caplan type, snarky and always on my phone.... however I am pretty darn good at my job. I look at every catering gig like an acting job, where my character has to care whether or not the event has gluten free this or that or vegan cookies available for the one person who asks for them. I smile and say “Let me go check on that for you...”, then avoid them the rest of the night. I chose to work in restaurants, not only because of the flexible hours, but because I love food so much. I even toyed with going to culinary school, but after spending time as a waitress, I realized I would much rather be the one dining in a restaurant than working in a restaurant full time. It is incredibly hard work, physically and emotionally. However, it allows me to financially live in New York and helps me get by as I pursue my dream.
Currently I am still dancing, taking classes, auditioning and have begun to work a bit in the film industry. I’ve been in a DIY mind frame and co-wrote, produced and starred in a short film with another fellow actress as a means to get funding for a feature film we are hoping to shoot this summer. I also wrote and starred in a web series called, Big City, that should be released soon as well as creating my own website, www.laurenruff.com I am living in Brooklyn, have a cat, and am still the little hippy from Oregon. Every time I get discouraged, I remember all those plays I put on in my bedroom and know that one day I’ll get on that big stage.
