Wesley made her Broadway debut as Terri Scholes in David Hare's The Vertical Hour. Other stage work includes Winter Miller's In Darfur at the Public Theater.
She has appeared on screen in "How She Move" and "Numb3rs" and currently plays Tara Thornton on HBO's hit series "True Blood."
| Full given name: | Rutina Wesley |
| Where you were born/where you were raised: | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Where you trained as an actor: | University of Evansville and The Juilliard School |
| First Broadway show you ever saw: | Rent |
| If you could go back in time and catch any Broadway show, what would it be? | The original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line |
| Recent show you were recommending to friends: | Jerusalem |
| Your personal acting idols: | Viola Davis and Angela Bassett |
| Favorite showtune(s) of all time: | "Out Here On My Own" from Fame |
| Some favorite musicals: | Wicked Fame A Chorus Line Rent Chicago |
| Some favorite playwrights: | Shakespeare, Pinter, Ntozake Shange, August Wilson, Suzan Lori-Parks and Chekhov |
| Broadway or screen stars of the past you would most have loved to perform with: | Audrey Hepburn, Sidney Poitier and Marlon Brando |
| One performance - attended - that you will never forget: | Richard II at the Old Globe in London, with Mark Rylance |
| MAC or PC? | MAC |
| Most played song on your iPod: | "A Milli" by Lil Wayne |
| Last book you read: | "The Help" |
| Must-see TV shows: | "So You Think You Can Dance" |
| Last good movie you saw: | "Midnight in Paris" |
| Some films you consider classics: | "On Borrowed Time" "My Fair Lady" "A Raisin in the Sun" |
| Performer you would drop everything to go see: | Viola Davis |
| Favorite cities: | New York, Seattle and Las Vegas |
| First CD/Tape/LP you owned: | Jem and the Holograms |
| First stage kiss: | My Discovery project at Juilliard with my now-husband Jacob Fishel |
| Moment you knew you wanted to perform for a living: | Performing Fame in high school |
| First major screen role: | "How She Move" |
| How you got your Equity card: | A pre-Broadway workshop of The Color Purple |
| Favorite pre-/post- show meal: (note where) | Lederhosen German bar |
| Favorite liquid refreshment: | Welch's grape soda |
| Worst flubbed line/missed cue/onstage mishap: | Completely going up on one of my monologues in a play I did called In Darfur. I recovered, but I stood there for what seemed like a million years.
|
| Leading lady role you've been dying to play: | Juliet |
| Leading man role you wish you could play: | Hamlet |
| Something about you that surprises people: | I can hit a baseball at 60 MPH! |
| Career you would want if not a performer: | I always wanted to be a dancer or maybe a doctor of some sort. |
| "I'll never understand why…" | ... people don't hold elevators if they see you coming!! |
| Words of wisdom for aspiring performers? | It's a marathon, not a sprint. This business, I mean. |
