Monica Raymund - Biography

Monica Raymund (born July 26, 1986) is an American stage performer and actress best known for playing Ria Torres in the TV show Lie to Me.

Personal life

A graduate of Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg, Florida, Raymund graduated from the Juilliard School in New York City. Her father, Steve Raymund, is board chairman and retired CEO of Tech Data Corp., a Clearwater-based distributor of computer components and software.

Her mother, Sonia, is "a community volunteer [and the] co-founder of the Soulful Arts Dance Academy in St. Petersburg." Her father is a "Jewish California native" and Raymund had a bat mitzvah. Her mother is from the Dominican Republic. She also has a brother, Will. In high school, she participated in the "Broadway Theater Project in Tampa and at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem."

In June 2011 Raymund married her fiance Neil Patrick Stewart.

Acting career

Reportedly, Raymund "performed in Cymbeline directed by Richard Feldman, The Diviners (directed by Jonathan Bernstein), and Animal Farm (directed by Trizana Beverley) all at the Juilliard School, where she is a member of the class of 2008."

Raymund also "appeared in her native St. Petersburg, Florida in the LiveArts Peninsula Foundation's original production of Manhattan Casino (directed by Bob Devin Jones) where she originated the leading role of "Althea Dunbar" and Webb's City: The Musical (music & lyrics by Lee Ahlin, written & directed by William Leavengood)." Raymund "is a three-year alumna of Ann Reinking's Broadway Theater Project, where she has been a featured performer."

Raymund has also "worked with playwright José Rivera on Boleros for the Disenchanted at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston" in 2008. She also featured in the opening scene of "Authority" in the 9th season of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, as a strip search prank call victim. From 2009 to 2011 she appeared in the Fox show Lie to Me, where she acts as a human lie detector. The character she plays is a "natural", meaning she has no formal training in detecting lies or the emotions of others.

In 2011, Raymund began a recurring role on the CBS series The Good Wife.

External links

• St. Petersburg native, 'Lie To Me' co-star Monica Raymund ready to put in the work St Petersburg Times, January 25, 2009 – Interview with Raymund