Biography

Larena (La-ree-na) Denise Patrick was born on May 8 in Roanoke, Virginia. She decided at the young age of 10 that she wanted to be an actress. She finally convinced her family that she was serious about her chosen career and was able to go on her first audition at the age of 12. It was for a local production of Annie. After that she began acting in school plays and by the time she graduated high school she had performed professionally in two plays at the regional theater and in several high school productions.

Larena went on to get her BFA in Acting at Virginia Commonwealth University. As her interest in acting extended to film, she continued her studies and got another degree - a second Bachelors, this one in Filmmaking and Broadcasting. As she was working on this second degree, she co-wrote and directed her first documentary film for a class project. At the same time she worked as a video editor at an NBC news affiliate.

As part of her formal education, Larena spent a year studying theater in Ontario, Canada and performed in Peer Gynt and Overpass while in her host country. Larena has worked in several areas of theater as an actor, stage manager and she has written and staged two of her original one act plays.

Larena speaks French and is proficient in American Sign Language. She has also studied Korean, Hebrew and Greek. Learning languages and dialects is especially enjoyable for her. She also enjoys hiking with her dogs, playing guitar and African drums, cooking, photography and taking classes in African dance and belly dance.

A self-proclaimed "nature girl," one reason Larena likes living in Los Angeles is because she is able to spend so much time outdoors enjoying nature.