“Directors didn't know what to do with me in college. I didn't really sound like a belter. I didn't look like a soprano. But in New York, I was in the right place at the right time, where my unusualness fit the bill.”

“Growing up, I never felt like the pretty girl.”

“I always loved playing the sidekick, and that's what I expected - I didn't think I was pretty enough or diva enough to play the lead.”

“I always thought moving to New York would mean starting over in theater, because I had great work in Chicago and didn't want to become a waitress here.”

“I didn't really start performing until high school. My whole family is actually in the business, and started in the business in Chicago, so I was going to shows when I was a teeny-tiny kid, but I didn't really start performing until high school.”

“I went to Syracuse University.”

“I'd been acting in Chicago since I came back after University, and I got a call from my agent saying, 'They're doing this revival of 'On a Clear Day,' and I actually auditioned when the team came through Chicago for the 'American Idiot' tour.”

“My dad listened to a lot of James Taylor when I was growing up. We had a couple of his cassettes in the car, and we'd go on a lot of long family car trips. It was either strange musicals or James Taylor - or Whitney Houston. It was quite the combination there.”

“My first professional gig was 'Once Upon a Mattress' at the Drury Lane Oakbrook... I was in the ensemble. I was one of the ladies in waiting, and I covered Winnifred.”

“Some of the best actors think they're terrible; that's what keeps you connected to a vulnerability that makes it possible for people to empathize with you.”

“The important thing is the storytelling and having a script that makes you feel you're living and breathing through the characters.”

“'White Christmas' is one of my favorite movies, so I've always just had a love for that kind of golden era musical.”