Bianca Montgomery - All My Children

I wanted to be a lot of things when I was a kid. Most kids did.

I spent family dinners with my right pointer finger against my temple like a laser, outlining my family members’ faces, making imaginary masterpieces. I wanted to be an animator. I spent five days a week training in classical ballet, finding my best friends among jazz combinations and pink tights, soon learning the techniques of Modern dance, classical ballet, and Bob Fosse’s theatre dance.

One night at dinner, I told my Dad I felt guilty for being an artist. I thought it was important to help save people’s lives. Maybe I should be a Doctor. I was smart. I could learn to love that. My Dad, a painter and educator, took a moment to respond. He looked to me and said that, as an artist, you are saving lives. You’re making life worth it. And I never looked back.

I was introduced to the stage through dance but discovered Shakespeare in 7th grade and turned to flexing my emotional and verbal muscles as an actor throughout high school. I moved to New York City after graduation and, despite the tragedy of 9/11 within the first two weeks as a freshman, pursued a degree in Performance and a minor in Film at Fordham University, performing in countless plays, a handful of short films and creating some of my own.

I studied Italian and spent a summer studying in Orvieto, rediscovered my high school French on a solo tour of France just after graduating, and spoke basic Greek as my first professional acting job took me to Northern Greece four times, working as a founding member of an ensemble theatre company dedicated to reviving classical theatre in its original environment.

I felt I was finally becoming myself. Acting was allowing me to experience life in both a public and private way. I was my best self on stage, and I worked consistently in theatre as an Equity actor, on television as a commercial spokesperson, and in film through a string of independent films. I was able to write, direct, and edit my first feature film with an independent production company. I am now fortunate enough to be working in L.A. on the daytime drama ‘All My Chidren’ as Bianca, the first contract Lesbian daughter of Susan Lucci’s Erica Kane.

I still outline faces, but mostly in my head.

My Mother, a dancer and educator, asked me soon after graduating why I chose acting. I took a moment to respond. I looked to her and said that, to me, it was making my life worth it. It was making even my most vulnerable self, instructive: my most private failures, universal. The smallest joys could be celebrated as something bigger, and the largest sorrows could be shared and let go.

I still want to be a lot of things. When I look ahead, I see directing and writing, filmmaking and producing. I still see painting and dancing, and I look forward to exploring my natural attraction to languages, dialects, and a solid 3-ball juggle. I guess most people want everything.

If we can help one another get there, it can all be worth it.