actor. writer. teacher. dog mommy.
What happens when the only Puerto Rican girl at a Jewish sleep-away camp gets cast as Aunt Eller in Oklahoma? She falls in love with acting, of course! Not really one for musicals, (I sing at a pitch heard only by dogs) I didn't do theater in high school. Oh, I was a nun in The Sound of Music, but how could you not be in an all-girls Catholic high school?
I did, however, discover Speech and Debate. It was a slightly skewed way to feed my performing jones. I did well enough to receive a full scholarship to compete for St. John’s University, at the time one of the top-ranked teams on the east coast. SJU only had a minor in theater so, in my skewed way, I took every theater class they offered and snuck in doing plays while competing nationally in Speech and Debate.
After graduation, I found myself at HB Studio studying for many years with esteemed teachers like Edward Morehouse, Jess Osuna, Michael Beckett, Rochelle Oliver, Carol Rosenfeld and of course, the incomparable Uta Hagen. Not long after, I started writing and performing sketch comedy with longtime collaborator Ted Baus. Baus and Troché performed at theaters, performance-art venues, clubs and cabarets throughout NYC and the country. We were awarded a Backstage Bistro award, as well as two consecutive Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) awards for Best Comedy Group. We also had the singular honor of being thrown out and banned from performing in not one, but two New Jersey towns! The townsfolk in both Bayhead and Maplewood, New Jersey decided that our “Safe Sex” sketch was too obscene for their conservative towns (decide for yourself HERE). Throughout the years, I've been in plays and performance pieces in nearly every NYC off-off Broadway theater. Most notably, in 2003 I was cast in the award-winning docudrama, Charlie Victor Romeo. I have continued learning acting from amazing people like Mark Zeller, Howard Meyer, John Strasberg and E. Katherine Kerr; improv with John Monteith (Monteith and Rand) and at Upright Citizens Brigade with Doug Moe and Kate Spencer; and film and TV audition technique with every major NY casting director during my time working at an actor's networking company.
Recent years have included film and TV roles that have brought me to Sundance and other film festivals as well as put me on primetime network and cable TV. Not one to forget my skewed past, I still write and perform my own work, alone and in collaboration, and in the works are: a new one-woman show, a couple of screenplays and several TV pilots. I also teach Pilates to help people get stronger and connect with their bodies. Come take class with me at my private studio, Rising Phoenix Pilates or take my signature Rollercore class online. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about Pilates or Rollercore: [email protected].
I did, however, discover Speech and Debate. It was a slightly skewed way to feed my performing jones. I did well enough to receive a full scholarship to compete for St. John’s University, at the time one of the top-ranked teams on the east coast. SJU only had a minor in theater so, in my skewed way, I took every theater class they offered and snuck in doing plays while competing nationally in Speech and Debate.
After graduation, I found myself at HB Studio studying for many years with esteemed teachers like Edward Morehouse, Jess Osuna, Michael Beckett, Rochelle Oliver, Carol Rosenfeld and of course, the incomparable Uta Hagen. Not long after, I started writing and performing sketch comedy with longtime collaborator Ted Baus. Baus and Troché performed at theaters, performance-art venues, clubs and cabarets throughout NYC and the country. We were awarded a Backstage Bistro award, as well as two consecutive Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) awards for Best Comedy Group. We also had the singular honor of being thrown out and banned from performing in not one, but two New Jersey towns! The townsfolk in both Bayhead and Maplewood, New Jersey decided that our “Safe Sex” sketch was too obscene for their conservative towns (decide for yourself HERE). Throughout the years, I've been in plays and performance pieces in nearly every NYC off-off Broadway theater. Most notably, in 2003 I was cast in the award-winning docudrama, Charlie Victor Romeo. I have continued learning acting from amazing people like Mark Zeller, Howard Meyer, John Strasberg and E. Katherine Kerr; improv with John Monteith (Monteith and Rand) and at Upright Citizens Brigade with Doug Moe and Kate Spencer; and film and TV audition technique with every major NY casting director during my time working at an actor's networking company.
Recent years have included film and TV roles that have brought me to Sundance and other film festivals as well as put me on primetime network and cable TV. Not one to forget my skewed past, I still write and perform my own work, alone and in collaboration, and in the works are: a new one-woman show, a couple of screenplays and several TV pilots. I also teach Pilates to help people get stronger and connect with their bodies. Come take class with me at my private studio, Rising Phoenix Pilates or take my signature Rollercore class online. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about Pilates or Rollercore: [email protected].
I also have the cutest dog in the world, Herschel.
He's half dachshund and half pit bull. How it happened, who knows?
But check out his Instagram @herschel_the_pibbleweenie.
He's half dachshund and half pit bull. How it happened, who knows?
But check out his Instagram @herschel_the_pibbleweenie.
what's new
● A half-hour comedy TV pilot I co-wrote with Jane Dashow, "Twin Gardens" was Quarterfinalist in the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, and is an official selection in the LA Indies Film Festival, the Toronto Film and Script Awards, the New York Independent Cinema Awards, the LA Independent Women Film Awards, the Toronto International Women's Film Festival and the London New Wave Cinema Awards. Our second pilot "Rock Wars" WON Best TV Pilot/Web Series in the Toronto Film Magazine Festival, WON Honorable Mention in the Big Apple Film Festival, was Quarterfinalist in the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards and is an Official Selection of the LA Indies Film Festival, London New Wave Festival, New York Independent Cinema Awards, LA Independent Women's Film Awards and the Berlin International Art Film Festival. So proud and excited!!