Meet Jeryl Brunner
Picture this…
A four-year-old little girl clicks the dial of her ancient TV and stumbles upon three of the most joyful people who seem to burst onto the screen. “Singin’ in the rain. Just singin’ in the rain,” they sing as the rain pours down over them. All this little girl wants to do is fly into her TV and be with the joyful trio holding black umbrellas. She picks up her shabby umbrella, dances like no one is watching and twirls. She has never felt happier. But everyone tells her that she has a cleft lip and palate and actresses have perfect faces.
So then what happened?
Despite what she is told she studies acting with William Hickey and Brandwell Teuscher at HB Studios. She auditions and is accepted into the undergraduate acting program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. After studying for several years at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute she joins what is now The Atlantic Acting School, with William H. Macy as her teacher. She performs in college plays. She does a voiceover in a student film. She also lets fear get the best of her, paying too much attention to those proverbial vultures whispering into her ear and stops performing.
But that’s not the end of the story…
She becomes a professional writer, working on staff at InStyle magazine interviewing actors from George Clooney to Meryl Streep about their craft. (And favorite shoes, because this is InStyle.) But she realizes that she misses performing too much. So she studies improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade. She takes dance class and writes comedy sketches that she performs. She becomes a playwright, writes a piece for Tony nominee Anika Larsen for The 24 Hour Plays. She performs in her own play, One Date Love, about the crazy lengths we go for people to love us. She reads audio books for Audible.com, becomes a podcaster for the Broadway Podcast Network interviewing artists about the moments that led them into theater. She does background work and studies with Larry Moss.
Which brings us to now…
People have told her that she can play a mystical, spiritual type, but they also see her as an uptight socialite. All she knows is this next chapter brings her back to her childhood bedroom discovering Singin' In The Rain for the first time. The biggest quote geek on the planet, she thinks of Eleanor Roosevelt’s wise words. "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”