Ruthellen Cheney

Ruthellen Cheney is a small town girl from the idyllic state of New Jersey. She is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and a New York-based actor, singer, and writer for both stage and film. She has trained at The Barrow Group School with Seth Barrish and Lee Brock. She recently portrayed Tanya in the short film Small Talk (Zed Fest Film Festival winner Outstanding Acting Performance) and played the lead role of June in the short film Happenstance. She also has a recurring role on the web-series Mandated and had a supporting lead role in the feature film Drinking Water. Ruthellen recently completed principal photography on Dearly Beloved, a sci-fi short film she wrote, produced, and starred in; she also wrote and starred in Undecided, a new interactive miniseries touching on issues of sexism, racism, discrimination, corruption, and the struggles of the LGBTQI community, but with the audience deciding how each protagonist handles certain critical moments. She is currently in post-production on her directorial debut, a short film entitled Informed, which she also wrote. In addition to her film work, Ruthellen has significant experience acting and writing for theatre. She portrayed Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Imogen in Cymbeline (an Art for Progress production), both at Theatre 80 St. Marks. She completed a three-year run in The Imbible: A Spirited History of Drinking at New World Stages, where she was the resident lady bass in the barbershop quartet, and she recently acted in The 4th Graders Present An Unnamed Love-Suicide at the Axis Theatre. As a playwright, she has won The Players Theatre Short Play and Musical Festival twice for her original short plays A Ghostly Reacharound and Strangers on an E Train. Her play Sammy and Esther Are Breaking Up had a limited run at the Duke Theatre on 42nd St as a semi-finalist in the New York New Works Theatre Festival. She is currently workshopping her full-length play with music entitled Annalise and the Bike Messenger, a modern take on Peter and the Wolf.