This week’s woman to watch out for in the arts & entertainment industry is actress and singer Laura Dreyfuss. She is currently known for her role as series regular McAfee Westbrook on Netflix’s new series,
The Politician
.
Dreyfuss began her career working in musical theatre. She graduated from the Boston Conservatory (Berklee College of Music’s performing arts conservatory) in 2010 with a BFA in musical theatre. In 2011, Dreyfuss landed her first role on Broadway as a swing in
Hair
. A swing is perhaps one of the most demanding positions on Broadway, as they must know multiple different parts at once and be ready to perform any of those parts at a moment’s notice.
After spending a year in the Broadway cast of
Hair
, Dreyfuss went on to be a standby for the lead role of Girl in the Tony-Award winning Broadway production of
Once
; in 2013, she officially took over in the lead role.
Following her work in
Once
, Dreyfuss performed in New York Theater Workshop’s Off-Broadway production,
What’s It All About? Bacharach Reimagined
. The show used songs written by Burt Bacharach, a prolific pop composer of the late 1950s through the 1980s, who wrote hits like Dionne Warwick’s “I Say A Little Prayer.” Each actor in the production, including Dreyfuss, played approximately five different instruments while also acting and singing.
Dreyfuss’s theater career took a pause for a few months in 2015 while she was appearing on the final season of Fox’s hit television series
Glee
. Dreyfuss played Madison McCarthy, a member of William McKinley High School’s cheer squad “The Cheerios” and a member of the newly reformed glee club, “New Directions.”
After appearing on
Glee
, Dreyfuss returned to the stage in 2015 to originate the role of Zoe Murphy in
Dear Evan Hansen
. She started with the production when it was at Arena Stage in Washington D.C. She then moved with the show in 2016 Off-Broadway to the Second Stage Theater in New York and then to the Music Box Theatre on Broadway, where she played the role of Zoe from 2016 to 2018.
In
Dear Evan Hansen
, Dreyfuss’s talent as a vocalist shines through in her solo song “Requiem.” The song is dark yet hauntingly beautiful as Zoe sings about how she doesn’t feel as sad as people think she should feel about her brother’s death.
Dear Evan Hansen
was the breakout moment of Dreyfuss’s career, and the show enjoyed enormous success. It won nine Tony Awards in 2017, including Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Book of a Musical; the show’s star Ben Platt won the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for his role as Evan Hansen.
Dear Evan Hansen
also won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Additionally, Dreyfuss won Broadway.com’s Audience Award for Favorite Featured Actress in a Musical.
Catapulting off of her success in
Dear Evan Hansen
, Dreyfuss released her debut single, “Be Great,” under the name Loladre in July of 2018. Then, Dreyfuss returned to television with a guest appearance on two episodes of Prime Video’s
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
in 2018.
Now, Dreyfuss can be seen starring alongside her
Dear Evan Hansen
co-star Ben Platt in Netflix’s new series The Politician. The first season of
The Politician
was released on September 27, 2019. Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan, the show follows Payton Hobart’s (Ben Platt) race for student body president at a fictional high school in Santa Barbara, California. Dreyfuss plays McAfee Westbrook, one of Payton’s campaign managers and advisors.
Keep an eye out for Dreyfuss as she continues to take the entertainment world by storm on stage and on the silver screen!
