Editor’s note: SAG-AFTRA members are currently on strike and cannot promote their film and TV projects. The reporting for this article was conducted before the strike began.
“She’s just, like, so cool,” one of the CM staff says. And she’s not wrong.
As soon as Merle Dandridge steps into our studio, clad in a leather trench coat and boots envied by every New York fashion student, she demands our complete attention. She oozes charisma with every pose — a quality as evident in our photoshoot as it is in her work on stage and on screen. From her multi-layered portrayal of Marlene in “The Last of Us” franchise to her iconic stint in Broadway’s “Rent” as Joanne, Dandridge brings a magnetism that is hard to miss. Contrary to the no-nonsense characters she plays, she’s bubbly and easy to talk to — geeking out over live theater throughout the interview and throwing “finger hearts” during the shoot.
Dandridge has been acting for nearly 30 years, with diverse bodies of work that cover all ends of the entertainment industry. Her claims to fame span from starring in “Station 19” to voice acting in games like “Half-Life 2” to appearing in “Sons of Anarchy,” “Criminal Minds” and “The Flight Attendant.” But, before the glitz and glam of Hollywood, she first dipped her toes in the world of acting through high school theater.
“I just took [drama] because it was an easy elective,” she says, insisting that acting found her and not the other way around.
“But I ended up finding a tribe and a place where I felt like I could be authentically myself and work out what made me joyful. Growing up with a Korean mother and a military dad, [it was] a place where I could let all of the emotion out.”
This “easy elective” eventually led to Dandridge getting a full ride to the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. She praises her time in Chicago (or “Chi-town,” as she…
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