I began thinking I would do musical theater because in high school that was really the only sort of curriculum they had as far as getting onstage and doing anything that anybody would see. So that's what I did.
With stage, you feel completely like you're just in a bubble. I love not being able to see anything. I love coming out and I can't see anything because the lights are so bright and it's pitch black. That's ideal for me, that's when I have the best time.
L.A. is always great. There's something special about L.A. And New York, for me, because it's home. There's nothing quite like walking onstage at Madison Square Garden.
Somewhere during the 'Next to Normal' Broadway run, I found myself learning more about myself onstage than in real life, and I truly realized the beautiful, tremendous, extraordinary gift that is performing.
Right after I left drama school, I had a job.
There's a picture of me as a little girl, and I'm waiting to go onstage, and I am biting the last bit of nail I have left on my finger.
I'd done acting at a local drama school on Saturdays. I just enjoyed it. It never entered my mind I could possibly do it for a career.
When I was in 'Billy,' I always knew that I wanted to do something in performing. I always knew that I wanted to have a future in the performing arts. I had no idea that it was going to be acting in movies.
The stage is the best experience in the world. It's a great compliment to be able to share the music, because people can hear my album but they don't get to make the connection in the same way as when it's one-to-one.
I love playing live, and doing big TV shows are exciting.
The first time I did a school play was the first time I felt I was good at anything at all. I just loved it.
I've been doing comedy for 20 years now. I started when I was 13 and I think for the first 10 years I was impersonating other people.
I was stage-struck from an early age. I just loved the language. We lived quite near Stratford so I would cycle and watch the plays.
I think that dancing has helped or prepared me, in a number of different ways, for the film industry, especially with controlling your nerves when you walk into an audition because you're on stage from a young age.
I played Li'l Abner and Batman in school plays; I wanted to be an actor to play all these different characters.
What we do in theatre is unlike film or any other medium. We can never really truly see the work that we made because we're in in.
When I'm on stage, it's like a different world ... me connecting with the audience. It's a surreal experience.
I did a lot of acting at school and university, then I went to drama school. It was quite a normal route.
My first couple shows, I figured I should be playing the guitar and singing. That felt weird, but I got good at it pretty quick, and I learned my songs and how to play them.
I knew I wanted to be in show business so I took the path of least resistance. I loved comedy. But you never know you are funny until people laugh. It's just what I was interested in. I could make people laugh, I guess, but doing it at school and doing it onstage are very different things.
I've been booed on stages. I'm a little bit tougher than to walk off a stage because someone says something ugly.
I was never not in a show from ages 11 until 18. It was a great creative atmosphere but also a professional kind of atmosphere. When I finally went into the professional world, I felt ready. I was prepared for work.
The first time I got onstage was when I was about 5 years old. It was at a church social, and I had a poem to recite.
Stepping back into theatre, a childhood dream, I always felt like I would be onstage. I hadn't imagined myself in a composer role... I find it so satisfying to be behind the scenes and writing the music and watching it elevated and characterized by different voices than my own. It's so exciting.
When I left Cambridge, I applied to regional repertory theaters in the U.K. and got accepted by one of them... And here I am, still at it.
