Rena Riffel Biography

Rena was born in Inglewood, California. When she was two years old, her parents, Dr. Eddie Riffel and Connie, moved from Playa Del Rey's beach community, nicknamed, "The Jungle", up to the Central Coast country forests of Atascadero. Her fathers side of the family came from the music business and vaudeville in Southbend, Indiana. Her grandmother, Rosalind Riffel, was a singer and won many awards, Eddie studied tap dancing and acrobatic ballet as a child, and her great gandmother was a professional opera singer in Austria-Hungary. Rena's mother is an accomplished accordian player who performed with Myron Floran and Lawrence Welk. Her great aunt, Corrine Johnston, was a professional tap dancer and batton twirler. Rena's childhood was filled with imagination and freedom to play and explore through acres upon acres of rolling hills, creeks, and oak trees. She loved to ride horses, compete in rodeo barrel racing, and act in home productions with her brother, Todd. Rena realized at five years old that she was going to be an actress. She performed in her first dance recital at age four, and continued to study ballet, jazz, and tap. She also began taking vocal lessons and sang in a childrens all-girl group who performed locally at church events. She landed her first acting and dance part in a production of THE KING AND I at the Paso Robles Playhouse. She also excelled as a cheerleader, beginning at ten years old, and was chosen as an All-Star Cheerleader. She continued cheerleading throughout her school years and her senior year she was appointed head songleader and choreographer for Atascadero High School. A photo of Rena with her thoroughbred horse won the state contest at the Sacramento State Fair. She was competing and winning dance contests, and earned a scholarship with San Luis Obispo American Dance Company. Atascadero Chamber of Commerce took notice and chose Rena as Miss Atascadero to compete in the San Luis Obispo Mid-State Fair Pageant where she won. At fifteen, Rena's parents began driving her down to Los Angeles to take acting classes for commercials, attend acting seminars, and audition for Debbie Allen and Aaron Spelling's Charlie's Angels 88'. She also made it into the finals for the Laker Girl Cheerleaders. She booked an opening act performance for the first all-girl rap group, JJ Fad, with her dance troupe at The Hollywood Palace. After graduating high school, she enrolled in college with a pre-med major studying anatomy and diagnostic technology while working as a medical back office nurse. But Rena yearned to be dancing and acting on stage and quickly made her departure for show business. She then moved to Los Angeles and stayed with her Aunt Elli and continued auditioning for dance parts, modeled for CATALINA SWIMWEAR, and landed some bit parts in movies and television. After an informative meeting with a top casting agent, Nancy Nayor, she began studying acting with Floyd Levine and taking dance class from Marguerite Pomerhn Derricks. Rena auditioned and earned a scholarship at the Rodunsky School of Dance. Levine took note of RenaÕs natural comedic talent and helped her to get representation with a theatrical agent. Elite Model Agency spotted her at a restaurant and immediately signed her and she began modeling for major brands such as JOE BOXER, AVON, and JOICO hair products. Rena then got her first acting audition for the horror thriller film, SATAN'S PRINCESS, and won a supporting role along side Academy Award nominated Robert Forster. Rena was pursuing her music dream and was determined to get a record deal. She went into Strassman Studios and recorded her first music demo. She played her demo for a music producer, was signed by their management company, and recorded many songs in N.Y. and in Miami. After a long bidding war between record labels, she landed a record deal with Mercury/Polygram Records. Rena then began recording and working under the direction of the renowned fusion jazz musician and producer, Jeff Lorber, nurturing her song writing skills and continued with her vocal coach, developing as an artist. Rena booked her first co-starring role on the TV series FRESHMAN DORM, along side a young Casper Van Dien. But she was getting frustrated with characters who had five lines or less and wanted to be auditioning for leads. She then auditioned for BATMAN RETURNS and got a small part as one of the Penguin's Girls with Danny De Vito. Then she landed a featured role opposite Patrick Stewart playing his tortured bride in the action movie GUNMEN. She was featured in the made for TV movie, SINATRA, playing May Britt, the wife of Sami Davis Jr., and was also featured on the series QUANTUM LEAP, playing a Miss Deep South beauty pageant contestant. With these few credits and exposure through her modeling, an ad campaign for ROBINSONS MAY, and the Clio Award and Telly Award Winning FANTASTIC SAM'S commercial airing, Rena was suddenly becoming a recognizable face. She began studying the Meisner Technique at Playhouse West along with newcomer Ashley Judd. While working on her music, she was asked to sing a song called Spaceeba for the movie BACK IN THE USSR, starring Roman Polansky and Frank Whaley. She was invited to visit the movie set in Moscow, Russia, during the last days of communistic rule, where she played her song to the Russian audience and earned a standing ovation. Rena booked her first lead in an independent art house film, ART DECO DETECTIVE, written and directed by the award winning Philippe Mora which premiered at the Directors Guild Theater and ran at Laemmle's Theater. Playing the role of twins, Meg/Julie Hudson, people took notice that Rena was able to carry a movie. Rena went to Cannes Film Festival 94' where the film was shown and well receive. She also landed another lead role in the thriller, UNDERCOVER, which opened #1 at the box office in the U.K. and stayed in the Top 10 Rentals at Blockbuster Video in the U.S. for many consecutive months. Auditions were being held for the movie SHOWGIRLS, the much anticipated Verhoeven-Eszterhas team follow up to Basic Instinct. Rena read for the lead part of Cristal, for casting director Johanna Ray, and received a callback to meet with Verhoeven. After four call backs and an intense dance audition, held by the choreographer, three time Emmy Award winner Marguerite Pomerhn Derricks, director Paul Verhoeven decided Rena was too young to play an aging showgirl, and instead, she was cast in a strong supporting role as the innocent Penny/Hope. While on the set, Rena had given a song she had written and recorded, Deep Kiss, to the music supervisor. The music supervisor tested it out on the production office to see if they liked it without telling them it was one of the actressesÕ songs. Verhoeven then listened and decided it was a perfect fit for the charismatic scene in the lap dance room. Rena is credited in the music score titles along side her favorite music legend, Prince. Fred Dryer, star of the hit TV series Hunter, then cast Rena to star opposite him in the 2-hour TV pilot, LAND'S END. She played Taffy Bishop, a struggling comedian, which Variety reviewed as "a show stealing turn by Rena Riffel". The mid-90's had two stand out dance movies, and Rena won a role in the follow up to SHOWGIRLS, STRIPTEASE, co-starring with Demi Moore and Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Burt Reynolds. As the most powerful female star in the movie business, Demi was paid a record setting 12.5 million dollars which gave STRIPTEASE even more of an intrigue. Acting in both of the most outstanding and talked about current dance films was a rare accomplishment in recent history and put Rena on the map. Audiences raved about RenaÕs dance ability and stand out acting performances which brought her public recognition all over the world. In the critically acclaimed HBO movie, BREAST MEN, Rena was cast along side David Schwimmer and Golden Globe and Academy Award winner Chris Cooper. She then went on location to Czech Republic and starred in DARK CONFESSIONS, playing the femme fatale. She guest starred in a string of sitcoms and TV series which included the grande finale episode of the long running hit show MARRIED...WITH CHILDREN, MINOR ADJUSTMENTS with Sara Rue, CLUELESS, the spin off from the hit movie, and Comedy Central's STRIP MALL. THE PRETENDER producers cast Rena in a guest lead role in the Las Vegas themed episode also featuring Mr. Las Vegas, Wayne Newton, for network Sweeps week, the week that every major network vies for viewers attention to be the most watched. She also landed a recurring role on the MTV soap opera SPYDER GAMES, showcasing her dancing and acting abilities playing a bellydancer. Rena took the role in the horror trilogy, CANDYMAN 3: DAY OF THE DEAD, which included the challenge of performing a stunt of being covered with thousands of live bees to complete her final scene. Also, she accepted the starring role in the independent psychological thriller, UNSTABLE MINDS. A cast of cult-film legends was assembled to star in CITIZENS OF PERPETUAL INDULGENCE which included Warhol-Morrissey and John Waters favorites such as Udo Kier, Joe Dellesandro, and Mink Stole. Due to the ever growing cult status of Rena's works, she was also cast in the ensemble. SMILING FISH AND GOAT ON FIRE and THE PORNOGRAPHER, both multi-film festival winners and critically acclaimed independent films, were added to Rena's credits. Her haunting scene in THE PORNOGRAPHER is the turning point of the movie and she received excellent reviews. She also starred in SCANDALOUS BEHAVIOR and had a strong supporting role as the femme fatale in SHARK IN A BOTTLE, along side Danni Nucci. David Lynch had offered Rena a role opposite Marilyn Manson in Lost Highway, but her agents turned it down due to nudity requirements. Rena Riffel Biography was disappointed but hoped that Lynch would remember her for future projects. In 2000, Rena was called in by cating director Johanna Ray to be put on videotape for Lynch's TV series pilot, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, a follow up to Twin Peaks. She later got the good news that Lynch had given her the part, the series regular role of Laney, a mysterious homeless character who would get revealed throughout the series and come to a grande finale when the big secret is unfolded. Though the pilot turned out to be another groundbreaking masterpiece for Lynch, Disney Studios wanted a family oriented show and asked for changes which Lynch would not agree to. The project was shelved until it was then released as a feature film. In 2002, it premiered at Cannes Film Festival and won the highest prize awarded, the Palme d'Or, and was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Actress for Naomi Watts . It is quoted by James Lipton of Rena Riffel Biography Inside The Actors Studio to be the most brilliant masterpiece in film making of the last decade and critically acclaimed by, what seems to be, all of the entertainment industry and critics alike. Accolades and laudatory notice are received by Rena for her role in MULHOLLAND DRIVE.