Biography - Lauren Ridloff

Who is Lauren Ridloff?

Lauren Ridloff is an American actress who is deaf. She is best known for starring in Broadway play Children of a Lesser God as Sarah Norman, The Walking Dead as Connie, and Marvel’s Eternals as Makkari.

Lauren Ridloff – Age, Parents, Siblings

Lauren Ridloff was born on April 6, 1978, in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Her birth name is Lauren Teruel. She was born to her Mexican-American father Hugo, a counselor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an African-American mother who was an artist. Not much is known about her siblings and family.

She was born deaf to hearing parents. Her parents had thought she had a developmental delay and learned when she was two years old that she was deaf. So they learned sign language for her. She stopped using her voice when she was 13 years old.

Education, Ethnicity

For education, Lauren Ridloff studied at in Catholic school with hearing children. Her parents later sent her to Model Secondary School for the Deaf where she began to be involved in drama and plays. Following graduation, she attended California State University, Northridge. Ridloff majored in English in May 2000. She also joined Hunter College, earning a Master's Degree in Education in 2005.

Her ethnicity includes Mexican-American and African-American.

Lauren Ridloff – Boyfriend, Husband, Children, Divorce

Lauren Ridloff married her longtime boyfriend Douglas Ridloff on June 17, 2006. She has two children with her husband, both boys. Their older son is named Levi Sol Ridloff and their younger son is named Wyatt Che Ridloff (born in 2016). Both the boys were born deaf.

As of 2021, the pair seems to be happy with their marriage, and relationship and there are no rumors of divorce surrounding the pair.

Lauren Ridloff – Career

Early Days

Ridloff competed in the National Association of the Deaf's Miss Deaf America competition and won Miss Deaf Illinois. She went on to win Miss Deaf America. After that, she attended as a spokesperson for luncheons and graduation ceremonies for NAD.

Following graduation from Hunter College, she started teaching kindergarten as well as first grade at Public School 347 in Manhattan. Meanwhile, she continued to be involved with deaf community theater and film work. She later left work to look after her sons.

In 2017 Lauren Ridloff began working as a consultant for the film Wonderstruck. She was ultimately cast in a small role followed by an appearance in the music video for John Legend’s Love Me Now.

Films, TV Series

Ridloff was hired to tutor director Kenny Leon in American Sign Language. For the revival of the 1980 play Children of a Lesser God. He asked her to substitute at a read-through as there was no female lead cast. Impressed by her skills as an actress, Leon offered her the role of Sarah Norman alongside Joshua Jackson. Her performance in the Broadway play was critically acclaimed, earning her nominations for numerous awards including a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. 

Since then she has starred in the TV series The Walking Dead (2018 - 2022) as Connie, Legacies (2018 - present), New Amsterdam (2018 - present), and in the films Sound of Metal (2019) and Marvel’s Eternals (2021).

Co-stars

On the set of Eternals, Lauren Ridloff has worked with Ma Dong-Seok, Lia McHugh, and Haaz Sleiman.

Lauren Ridloff – Awards, Nominations

For her work in Children of a Lesser God, Ridloff has been nominated for the Tony Award, Drama League Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award, all in the year 2018.

Lauren Ridloff – Net Worth, Salary

The net worth of Ridloff is estimated to be around $2 million while the figure on her annual income is not of public knowledge.

Lauren Ridloff – Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

On social media sites, Lauren Ridloff is active on Instagram and Twitter but is absent from Facebook.