Lauren Patten

Lauren Marie Patten (born September 22, 1992) is an American actress, singer, and writer best known for originating the role of Jo in the Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill, as well as playing Officer Rachel Witten in the crime series Blue Bloods. For her performance in Jagged Little Pill, Patten won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Lauren Patten
Patten at the 74th Tony Awards in 2021
Born	Lauren Marie Patten (1992-09-22) September 22, 1992 (age 32) Downers Grove, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actress, singer
Years active	2007–present

Early life and education

Patten grew up in Downers Grove, Illinois. She started acting at four, and because of this early start to her career, started homeschooling in seventh grade.^[1]

Patten briefly attended New York University and University of Southern California^[2] before graduating from The New School with a BA in Creative Writing.^[3]

Patten came out as bisexual and queer in 2018.^[4]

Career

Patten started doing commercials at age four and began to perform in community theatre soon afterwards. She made her professional theatre debut when she was 12-years-old, in the Goodman Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol. At age 14, she moved to Los Angeles to participate in the Rubicon Theatre's production of A Diary of Anne Frank as the title character. Patten participated in many productions at the Rubicon, and she was nominated for a 2008 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Elma in Bus Stop.^[5][6] Patten also won a Santa Barbara Independent Award for her performance as Emily in Our Town.^[7] Patten participated in Deaf West's production of Spring Awakening as Ilse.^[8] She also portrayed Trashley in the original rock musical Home Street Home by Fat Mike of NOFX.^[9]

In 2015, Patten moved to New York City to appear in the original Broadway cast of Fun Home as the cover for Medium Alison and Joan. In 2016, Patten was the captain for Fun Home's team for the Broadway Bowling League, "The Bowl Dykes".^[10] On February 2, 2016, Patten took over the role of Medium Alison while original actor Emily Skeggs was away doing a television project until May 22, 2016.^[11] Patten then covered Medium Alison and Joan until her final performance on June 19, 2016.^[12]

In 2017, Patten played the team captain, #25, in Sarah DeLappe's play, The Wolves about a soccer team of suburban teenage girls. Patten won two awards as part of the ensemble, an Obie Award for Ensemble Performance,^[13] and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble.^[14] Later in 2017, Patten was the lead in the New York Musical Festival's production of The Goree All-Girl String Band where she played Reable Childs.^[15]

Patten originated the role of Jo in the Alanis Morissette jukebox musical Jagged Little Pill in the 2017 reading, and continued in the role in the original production at the American Repertory Theater in 2018.^[16] Patten won an IRNE Award for Best Supporting Actress in a large stage musical and was nominated for the 2019 Elliot Norton Award for Best Musical Performance by an Actress for her performance.^[17][18] Later in 2018, Patten played Jenny in Steven Levenson's play, Days of Rage at Second Stage Theatre. In the fall of 2019, Patten reprised her role of Jo in Jagged Little Pill on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre,^[19] where she has received critical praise, especially for her performance of "You Oughta Know".^[12] In 2020, for her portrayal of Jo she won both a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical^[20] and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Patten has been a guest star on various television programs. Some of her major credits include the recurring roles of Officer Rachel Witten on the show Blue Bloods and Polly Dean on Season 3 of The Good Fight. Other television credits include being in the guest cast for shows such as Arrested Development, Switched at Birth, and Succession.^[21]

Patten has done two concerts with her band, whose members include Damien Bassman, Eric B. Davis, and Marc Schmied. Their first performance was at Rockwood Music Hall on August 5, 2019,^[22] and her second was at The Bitter End on October 13, 2019.^[23]

In 2024, Patten stars as "Anna" in Death and Other Details on Hulu.^[24]

Stage credits

Year	Title	Role	Theatre	Notes
2007	The Diary of Anne Frank	Anne Frank	Rubicon Theatre[25][26]
2008	Bus Stop	Elma Duckworth
2013	Our Town	Emily Webb
2014	Deaf West's Spring Awakening	Ilse	Rosenthal Theater[27]
2015	Home Street Home	Trashley	Z Space[28]
2015–2016	Fun Home	Medium Alison/Joan Understudy	Circle in the Square Theatre	Broadway debut
2016		Medium Alison[11]		Temporary replacement (February 2-May 22, 2016)
	The Wolves	#25	The Duke on 42nd Street[29]
2017	The Goree All-Girl String Band	Reable Childs	New York Musical Festival[30]
2018	Days of Rage	Jenny	Second Stage Theater[31]
	Jagged Little Pill[32]	Joanne "Jo" Taylor	American Repertory Theatre[33]
2019–2021			Broadhurst Theatre[34]
2024	The Lonely Few[35]	Lila	MCC Theater

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2013	Arrested Development	High School Girl #2	Guest cast: "Señoritis"[36]
	Awkward	Nerdy Girl	Guest cast: "Who I Want to Be"
2015	Switched at Birth	Serena	Guest star: "Lock the Door Upon Myself"
2018–2021, 2023–2024	Blue Bloods	Officer Rachel Witten	Recurring; seasons 8–12 Guest; seasons 13–14[37]
2018	Succession	Angela	Guest star: "Prague"
2019	The Good Fight	Polly Dean	Recurring; season 3
2024	Death and Other Details	Anna Collier	Series regular

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	The Big Sick	Party Goer 2
2020	Estella Scrooge: A Christmas Carol with a Twist	Dawkins	Online release[38]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2008	Ovation Award	Featured Actress in a Play	Bus Stop	Nominated
2013	Santa Barbara Independent Theatre Award	Performance	Our Town	Won
2017	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Ensemble	The Wolves	Won
	Obie Award	Ensemble		Won
2019	Elliot Norton Award	Outstanding Musical Performance by an Actress	Jagged Little Pill	Nominated
	IRNE Award	Best Supporting Actress in a Musical (Large Stage)		Won
2020	Tony Award	Best Featured Actress in a Musical		Won
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical		Won
	Drama League Award	Distinguished Performance		Nominated
	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical		Honouree
2021	Grammy Award	Best Musical Theater Album		Won

References

1. Helbig, Jack (October 15, 2009). "Downers Grove teen grows up on stage". Daily Herald. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
2. Moynihan, Caitlin (December 6, 2019). "Lauren Patten on the 'Odd and Beautiful' Process of Originating Her Role in Jagged Little Pill". Broadway.com. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
3. Gordon, Jessica Fallon (June 10, 2016). "Thank You For Coming Out to Team Up with FUN HOME for Improv Workshop". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
4. Wild, Stephi (June 18, 2020). "Behind the Rainbow Flag: Lauren Patten Shares the Story of Her First Pride Parade as an Openly Queer Person". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
5. Ng, David (2008-02-27). "'Bus Stop' has lots of character". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
6. "Lauren Patten". www.goodmantheatre.org. December 2009. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
7. "Lauren Patten". IMDb. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
8. Stanley, Steven (2014-09-19). "SPRING AWAKENING". StageSceneLA. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
9. Tavana, Art (2015-03-10). "Fat Mike's Punk Rock Musical Features BDSM, Rape and Catchy Tunes". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
10. "Lauren Patten on stepping into Fun Home full-time, her history with Spring Awakening, and leading the Bowl Dykes at Broadway Bowling". Stage Door Dish. 2016-04-13. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
11. "Introduce Yourself(ie): 10 Questions with Fun Home's Medium Alison, Lauren Patten". BroadwayBox.com. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
12. "Lauren Patten". Playbill. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
13. Considine, Allison; Evans, Suzy (2017-05-23). "The Obie Awards, Where They Make It All Up". American Theatre. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
14. "She Created Ten Complex, Messy, Utterly Real Women". The Ensemblist. June 7, 2017. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
15. Bowling, Suzanna (July 11, 2017). "Meet The Artist of NYMF: First Up The Goree All-Girl String Band and Lauren Patten". Times Square Chronicles. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
16. Goldstein, Meredith (June 14, 2018). "'Jagged Little Pill' actress Lauren Patten is a showstopper you oughta get to know". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
17. Lefkowitz, Andy (April 9, 2019). "Moulin Rouge! & Danny Burstein, Jagged Little Pill's Lauren Patten Win Boston's IRNE Awards". Broadway.com. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
18. "A Full List Of The 37th Annual Elliot Norton Awards Nominees". wgbh.org. 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
19. Marine, Brooke (November 29, 2019). "New Faces: Lauren Patten, Jagged Little Pill's Showstopper". W Magazine. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
20. Bennett, Anita (14 June 2020). "'The Inheritance' And 'Moulin Rouge!' Among Winners At 65th Annual Drama Desk Awards". Deadline. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
21. "Lauren Patten". www.tvmaze.com. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
22. Sewell, Gregory (2019-03-24). "Standing Ovations". TINY-JOURNEY. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
23. "Eventful: Lauren Patten with Damien Bassman, Eric B. Davis, and Marc Schmied". Eventful. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
24. Tinubu, Aramide (2024-01-16). "Hulu's 'Death and Other Details' Is Intriguing but Countless Characters and Bizarre Clues Cause Confusion". Variety. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
25. Brandes, Philip (March 15, 2007). "Anne Frank lives anew". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
26. Johnson, B. "Life, so precious, is probed in Ventura production of 'Our Town' this month". VC Star. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
27. Dostal, Ellen (September 17, 2014). "BWW Reviews: Deaf West and Michael Arden Discover a New SPRING AWAKENING". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
28. Winn, Steven (2015-03-01). "'Home Street Home' review: Musical could be a hit with some fixes". SFGate. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
29. Rizzo, Frank (2016-12-10). "Off Broadway Review: 'The Wolves'". Variety. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
30. "Interview Lauren Patten on Her Show at NYMF and The Wolves". StageBuddy.com. 2017-07-24. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
31. Lefkowitz, Andy (September 12, 2018). "Lauren Patten Completes Cast of Steven Levenson's World Premiere Play Days of Rage". Broadway.com. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
32. "The Approval Matrix: Week of December 9, 2019". New York Magazine. 2019-12-09. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
33. Gottlieb, Jed (2018-10-09). "Is She Broadway's Next Rock Star?". OZY. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
34. Soloski, Alexis (2019-09-12). "'You Oughta Know': The Road to Making a '90s Anthem a Broadway Hit". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
35. Ito, Robert (2023-03-01). "For Two Broadway Stars, a Love Story Blossoms in a Honky-Tonk Bar". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
36. TV.com. "Lauren Patten". TV.com. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
37. Levine, Daniel S. (April 5, 2019). "'Blue Bloods' Teases Eddie's New Partner in Preview Clip". PopCulture.com. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
38. "Betsy Wolfe & Clifton Duncan to Star in New Digital Musical "Estella Scrooge"". Broadway Direct. September 9, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2021.

External links

• Lauren Patten at IMDb
• Lauren Patten at the Internet Broadway Database
• Lauren Patten at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Lauren Patten at Playbill Vault