On December 23, Live & In Color presented a warm and fuzzy BE OUR GUEST Here Lies Love reunion as guest host Maria-Christina Oliveras (Amélie, Machinal; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) caught up with her former cast mate, Tony winner Ruthie Ann Miles (Sunday in the Park with George, The King and I). When Melody Butiu, Nathaniel P. Claridad, Kelvin Moon Loh, Jaygee Macapugay and Jeigh Madjus signed in to the chat for a quick cameo, it was as if they were all back in the dressing room at The Public Theater. Watch the interview below.
Hailing from Honolulu, Ruthie Ann Miles moved to New York City in 2005 for graduate school and never looked back, carving out a successful career on Broadway where she is well respected and revered as a top actor by her peers in the theater community.
Miles appeared on Broadway as Lady Thiang in the Tony Award-winning revival of The King and I, for which she won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, and was nominated for an Olivier Award for her outstanding work. Prior to that, she starred in Sunday in the Park with George on Broadway, opposite Jake Gyllenhaal and AnnaLeigh Ashford at the historic Hudson Theatre.
Ms. Miles is known for originating the role of Imelda Marcos in Alex Timber’s critically acclaimed show Here Lies Love, written by David Byrne with DJ Fatboy Slim, for which she received two prestigious awards, the Lucille Lortel Award and the Theatre World Award. Her other theater projects include Love’s Labour’s Lost, Avenue Q at the New World Stages, Band Geeks, Two By Two, and the national tours of both Annie and Sweeney Todd.
Additionally, Ms. Miles has played across the country with the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and Boston Pops in Sondheim on Sondheim. She has sung with the NY Pops, San Francisco Symphony, and the Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra in South Korea.
In 2016, she joined the cast of television series, “The Americans,” playing Young-Hee Seong, a Korean immigrant and Mary Kay consultant whose husband is of interest to the KGB. Ms. Miles is currently a Series Regular on CBS’s prime time drama, “All Rise,” which has begun filming it’s 2nd season. Other television credits include “Elementary”. She also read the audiobook for The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. She can be heard as ‘Mother’ in the new animated film Over the Moon.
Ms. Miles received her master’s degree in music performance from NYU Steinhardt. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @RuthieAnnMiles.
Maria-Christina Oliveras is an award-winning actor, singer, educator and producer. She has performed extensively on and off Broadway, regionally, internationally, and in film and television, and has served as a singer for such esteemed artists as Taylor Mac and Toshi Reagon. Dedicated to new works and underrepresented stories, her career is distinguished by her transformational character work in a number of world premieres, including Kiss My Aztec, a new musical by John Leguizamo and Tony Taccone, music and lyrics by David Kamp and Benjamin Velez, Amelie by Craig Lucas, Nathan Tysen and Daniel Messe, directed by Pam MacKinnon, Soft Power, a play with music by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori, directed by Leigh Silverman, El Huracan by Charise Castro Smith, directed by Laurie Woolery, Pretty Filthy by Bess Wohl and Michael Friedman, directed by Steve Cosson and Here Lies Love, a musical by David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim, directed by Alex Timbers. Maria-Christina will appear next in Season 7 of NCIS:NOLA and the upcoming independent short, Matthew.
Broadway: Amelie (cast album); Machinal; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Off-Broadway: Here Lies Love (Public; cast album); Pretty Filthy (Civilians; cast album); Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade…(St. Ann’s Warehouse); And Miles to Go (PCP); Reading Under the Influence (DR2); Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Public); Romeo and Juliet (Public); Zorba! (Encores!); Night Sky (BPAC). Regional: CTG, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, Williamstown, Long Wharf, Huntington, Baltimore Centerstage, Sundance, O’Neill, among numerous others. Selected Film/TV: Manhattan Night, St. Vincent, “Nurse Jackie”, “Law & Order: SVU”, The Blacklist”; “Madame Secretary.” Education: B.A. with honors—Yale University; M.F.A.—National Theatre Conservatory.
An esteemed educator, Maria-Christina has served on faculty at Fordham University Lincoln-Center, Yale University, Primary Stages, Stella Adler Conservatory, among numerous others, and frequently serves as a guest speaker at universities throughout the country. Maria-Christina currently teaches Acting as Assistant Professor of Theater at Wesleyan University.
Maria-Christina is a founding member of Partial Comfort Productions, serves on the Board of The Civilians with whom she is also an Associate Artist, is a member of National Alliance of Acting Teachers and The Actors’ Center Workshop Company, and is an alumna of The Lark Playground and New Dramatists’ Composer-Librettist Studio, both dedicated to new works’ development and collaboration. She has served as a panelist and reader for various fellowships and programs including Sundance Institute, the Lark Play Development Center, New Dramatists, and Back to the Future/History Matters. She is the recipient of New Dramatists’ Charles Bowden Acting Award and the St. Ursula Award for Distinguished Career Achievement
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and she received a Best Actress nomination. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman. She stars in and served as Executive Producer for the short independent films Hide and Seek, Balancing Act, Rom-Com Gone Wrong, Belongingness and When the World was Young. She is also the Executive Producer for The Cactus, The Language Lesson, The Writer and Cream and 2 Shugahs.
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