Actor, director, and writer
Carolyn Ratteray has a passion for storytelling across multiple artistic mediums of performance, writing, and directing. Her career spans off-Broadway and regional theaters, as well as notable appearances in TV, film, and voice-over.
Highlights include performances at such venues like the Mark Taper Forum, Pasadena Playhouse, The Geffen Playhouse, Echo Theatre Company, Antaeus Theatre, The Garry Marshall Theatre, and A Noise Within. Regionally, she has performed at The Old Globe, The Pearl Theatre Company, and the Classical Theatre of Harlem.
In addition to performance, Carolyn has directed Lynn Nottage's By The Way Meet Vera Stark, Madhuri Shekar's In Love and Warcraft, and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Pomona College. She has directed numerous readings and short plays for theatres throughout the Los Angeles area.
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Carolyn’s one woman show, Both And (A Play About Laughing While Black) won the Los Angeles New Play Project Award in 2021. The show had a world premiere at Boston Court Theatre in May 2022; the Wallis Center for Performing Arts remounted it in January 2024.
Carolyn also wrote, directed, and starred in her short film, Unclaimed, a comedic episodic about polyamory. It won awards at the DTLA Film Festival for Best Web Series and Best Screenplay and also gained international recognition with film festival screenings in the US and Canada beginning in 2022 and onward.
Her film and TV credits include notable appearances in Riley Parra, Seasons of Love, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, The Young and the Restless, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Castle, All My Children, and Chemistry. She has voiced several video games including Red Dead Redemption II, Mafia: Definitive Edition, and Far Cry Dawn. Carolyn's received her M.F.A. from The Old Globe/University of San Diego and a B.F.A. from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. You will also find her in regular Improv and Clown training with teachers such as Philip Gaulier, Chris Bayes, David Bridel, and Angela De Castro.
She is a Resident Artist at A Noise Within Theatre, and a member of Antaeus Theatre and Ammo Theatre Company. She is as an acting professor at Pomona College.
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Projects
Carolyn’s artistic voice and writing center around stories that harness joy and humor as a tool of human connection and healing.
Unclaimed, her episodic about polyamory, screened at Outfest, London Lesbian Film Festival, Urbanworld, aGLIFF, Atlanta Black Pride Festival, the Baltimore International Film Festival and DTLA Film Festival where it won awards for Best Screenplay and Best Webseries.
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Production Stills
Performance
Reviews
Carolyn Ratteray has had the pleasure of working with many talented individuals and organizations throughout her career. Some of her collaborations include:
The Mountaintop
There is electricity between him and the maid Camae who, in a heartbreakingly powerhouse performance by Carolyn Ratteray...
Stage and Cinema
2019
The Cake
...to her credit, Ratteray keeps the character smart and funny, with touching depth of feeling in her relationship with Jen...
LA Times
2018
The Mountaintop
Carolyn Ratteray plays the maid Camae with a grace, humor and a sense of awe at her own purpose and creation that gave me chills.
NOHO Arts District
2019
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Performance Reel
Upcoming