Early life

Born to Kurt and Lenore Riegel in Washington, D.C., 1981, Riegel was raised in a Virginia suburb and became interested in acting while watching her brother, Sam, perform dinner theater, which she later joined in for $10 a week. Her big break came when she won the role of Cosette in Les Misérables, leading to other roles on and off-Broadway. She graduated from the Professional Children's School and attended Harvard University, with ambitions to become a lawyer, but later left the institution. In 2000, she served as an intern at the White House for the summer.

Career

All My Children

From July 2000 to February 2005, Riegel portrayed the role of Bianca Montgomery on the American ABC soap opera All My Children. During the 2004-2005 baby switch storyline, when Bianca's daughter is kidnapped and switched with the son of Babe Carey Chandler (Alexa Havins), Riegel also portrayed Bianca on fellow ABC soap opera One Life to Live. In December 2000, Riegel's character "comes out" to her mother, Erica Kane (Susan Lucci), becoming the only lesbian on a daytime soap opera at that time. In 2003, the kiss between Bianca and character Lena Kundera (Olga Sosnovska) made history when it became the first lesbian kiss to appear on American daytime television. In 2005, with Lena out of the picture, Bianca shares a kiss with close friend and confidante Maggie Stone (Elizabeth Hendrickson), making TV Guide's list of best same-sex kisses on television. Riegel's character was awarded the first Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation award for "Favorite OUT Image of the Year" in 2004. Lesbianation.com, self-proclaimed as the leading online community for lesbians, voted Eden Riegel as Number 7 on their top ten list of Women We Love: The Ladies of June '06, stating, "We were swamped with requests to add All My Children hottie Eden Riegel to our list this month — and here she is!"

Riegel was nominated for three Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series (2001, 2002, 2004) before finally winning the award in 2005. She won two Soap Opera Digest Awards in 2001 for Outstanding Female Newcomer, and in 2005 for Outstanding Younger Lead Actress. Later that year, Riegel, along with best friend and co-star Elizabeth Hendrickson, exited All My Children, with their last show airing on February 24, 2005. Riegel then moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue other acting ventures. She made a brief return to the soap opera when her television mother (Erica) marries in May 2005, and returned for an extended stay from December 16, 2005 to January 10, 2006. Bianca's daughter, Miranda, was aged accordingly. Riegel returned again for a short visit from May 24, 2006 until mid-June, in a storyline connected with Bianca's sister Kendall's (Alicia Minshew) pregnancy and coma. In August 2006, Riegel's return to All My Children as a contract player was announced. The actress taped her first scenes on September 12, which first aired on October 11. Riegel commuted back and forth between her home and family in Los Angeles and New York, where All My Children tapes. In 2007, she parted ways with the show once again, but reappeared in the episode dated August 14, 2007, when Bianca phones in to check on Kendall from Paris, and in December for a Christmas visit.

In 2008, Riegel agreed to return to All My Children with Tamara Braun. Braun came on as Reese Williams, Bianca's new lover/girlfriend and later wife. Bianca first aired on October 17, 2008. Reese followed on October 30, 2008. Riegel's return was partly to minimize the effect of Alicia Minshew's absence on the show while Minshew took a two-month hiatus to get married. Reese and Bianca's union made history when it resulted in the first legal same-sex marriage in American daytime television. Riegel left the show again in February 2009, but also confirmed in an interview with Soap Opera Digest that she would be returning in spring 2009 to conclude the Reese and Bianca story.

In 2010, Riegel returned for a short-term stint for All My Children's 40th anniversary. The character had been cited as too iconic to recast, but, in 2010, Riegel decided to permanently exit the role, and plans to recast were subsequently confirmed. However, on February 22, 2013, it was announced that Riegel will be reprising her role as Bianca in guest-arc on the Prospect Park's continuation of All My Children.

Other projects

Prior to joining All My Children, Riegel had a small role on the daytime drama As the World Turns as an AIDS patient, appeared in Law & Order and portrayed a minor character in the feature film American Pie. She sang and did voice acting work in the film The Prince of Egypt. She has also done some voice acting for animated TV shows like Stitch! and Bleach. While portraying Bianca, she remained active in other acting avenues, doing a small guest role on American Dreams and appearing in the New York play The Sex Lives of Superheroes.

In 2008, Riegel joined the cast of Year One, a Harold Ramis film that stars Jack Black and Michael Cera. The film is a comedy about two men wandering through civilization during Biblical times, and was released in June 2009.

Riegel and her brother, Sam Riegel, both voiced characters in the 2012 Vita port of "Persona 4 Golden", voicing the characters of Marie and Teddie, respectively.

Riegel is currently starring in the web series Imaginary Bitches, portraying the role of "Eden", a single girl who deals with the lonely reality that her best friends are all in serious relationships by creating some imaginary friends...who turn out to be total bitches. The show is edited by Riegel's half-sister Tatiana S. Riegel, written by brother Sam Riegel, and was created by Andrew Miller. In 2010, Riegel took over the role of Heather Stevens on The Young and the Restless. She also guest-starred on ABC's Castle, portraying the distraught sister of a man who is killed in the episode.

Personal life

Riegel's older brother, Sam, is a voice actor in various animated shows and video games, and her half-sister, Tatiana (known as "Tanya" to friends and family), is an Oscar-nominated film editor for various television shows and films. Riegel discussed the portrayal of Bianca with Tatiana, who is a lesbian, and with the producers of All My Children, in order to ensure that the character was not a stereotype.

In March 2007, Riegel became engaged to Andrew Miller, who had been a high school classmate of Cameron Mathison (Ryan Lavery on All My Children). Miller and Riegel married on September 30, 2007 and their first son, Jack Oscar Miller, was born on May 21, 2011. In June 2013, Riegel announced through Twitter that she is expecting her second child, a boy. Her second son Henry Isaac Miller was born on December 20, 2013.

Riegel is a fan of the NHL team the Toronto Maple Leafs, and is a close friend of actresses Rebecca Budig, Alicia Minshew and Elizabeth Hendrickson.

Filmography

Films

List of live-action acting performances in films

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1992	Home Alone 2: Lost in New York	Choir Member	Uncredited role
1994	The Frog King	Princess	Sundance Film Festival selection
1996	Duo	Joan
1999	American Pie	Sarah
1999	Henry Hill	Nicole Hill
2001	Semmelweis	Elisabeth	Short film
2009	Year One	Lilith

List of voice performances in films

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1993	Peppermint Rose		Voice role Special
1993	Richard Scarry's Best Learning Songs Video Ever!		Voice role Released straight-to-video
1993	Richard Scarry's Best Busy People Video Ever!		Voice role Released straight-to-video
1998	The Prince of Egypt	Young Miriam	Voice role
2003	Azumi	Azumi	Voice role English dub
2004	Hi no Tori	Chihiro/Robita	Voice role
2006	Azumi 2: Death or Love	Azumi	Voice role English dub
2013	Naruto Shippuden the Movie: The Lost Tower	Queen Sara, Sara's Daughter	Voice English dub
000000002015-02-24-00002015	Tiger & Bunny: The Rising	Kaede Kaburagi	Voice English dub
2015	The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar	Kiara	Voice Television movie

Television

List of live-action acting performances on television and related media

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1995, 1997	New York Undercover	Meghan Cooper	Episode: Digital Underground Episode: The Solomon Papers
1997	Law & Order	Natalie	Episode: Mad Dog
2000-2010; 2013	All My Children	Bianca Montgomery	(Role from: July 2000 - February 2005; May 2005; December 2005 - January 2006; May 2006; October 2006 - April 2007; August 2007; December 2007; October 17, 2008 - February 24, 2009; April 24, 2009 - April 29, 2009; January 5, 2010; April 29, 2013 - July 15, 2013)
2004	American Dreams	Protestor	Episode: Shoot the Moon
2004-05	One Life to Live	Bianca Montgomery	3 episodes
2008	Imaginary Bitches	Eden	Web series 13 episodes
2008	Cooking to Get Lucky	Host	Web series 5 episodes
2010	Castle	Rachel Goldstein	Episode: Punked
2010-11	The Young and the Restless	Heather Stevens	April 20, 2010 - November 4, 2011
2012	NCIS	Meredith Bilson	Episode: The Good Son
2014	Hawaii Five-0	FBI Analyst Katie Halinan	Episode: Pe'epe'e Kanaka
2014	Criminal Minds	Shelley Hicks	Episode: A Thousand Suns

List of voice performances in television and direct-to-video

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2001	Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars	Harumi Mineo, Hikaru	English dub as Jane Lingo
2002	Samurai Deeper Kyo	Sakuya	English dub as Sonja Lingo/Eden Regal
2004	DearS	B-ko	English dub as Jane Lingo
2009-2013	Stitch!	Yuna	English dub
2010-11	Bleach	Rurichiyō Kasumiōji	English dub
2011	Marvel Anime: Iron Man	Nanami Ota	English dub
2012-13	Tiger & Bunny	Kaede Kaburagi	English dub
2015	Sailor Moon R	Koan	English dub Viz dub; as Claudia Lenz
2015	Fresh Beat Band of Spies	Spooky Spooks	Episode: "Ghost of Rock" as Eden Riegel Miller
2016	The Lion Guard	Kiara
000000002016-02-19-00002016	Sailor Moon Crystal	Koan	Episode: "Infiltration -Sailor Mars-" English dub as Claudia Lenz

Video games

List of performances in video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2008	Tales of Vesperia	Estellise Sidos Heurassein
2009	Star Ocean: Second Evolution	Rena Lanford	as Claudia Lenz
2010	Lunar: Silver Star Harmony	Luna Noa
2010	Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon	Ren
2010	Nier	Devola/Popola
2010	Final Fantasy XIII	Additional Voices
2010	Dead or Alive Paradise	Hitomi	shared with Hynden Walch
2010	Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles	Akari Tatsuhiro
2011	Dead or Alive: Dimensions	Hitomi
2012	Call of Duty: Black Ops II	Josefina Menendez, Jane McKnight
2012	Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City	Sherry Birkin
2012	Soulcalibur V	Additional voices	as Claudia Lenz
2012	Dead or Alive 5	Hitomi
2012	Resident Evil 6	Sherry Birkin
2012	Persona 4 Golden	Marie
2013	Fire Emblem: Awakening	Sumia, Nah
2013	Shin Megami Tensei IV	Isabeau
2013	Dragon's Crown	Elf
2013	Saints Row IV	Jane Austen	Serves as narrator for the game
2013	Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness	Sicily
2014	Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD Remaster	Chuami	Final Fantasy X -Will- Audio Drama
2014	Drakengard 3	Accord
2014	Conception II	Ellie Troit
2014	Persona 4 Arena Ultimax	Marie
2014	Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth	Marie
2014	Guilty Gear Xrd	May
2014	Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed	Rin
2015	Saints Row: Gat out of Hell	Jane Austen/Demons
2015	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2	Female Tico
2015	Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven	Charlotte	as Claudia Lenz
2015	Xenoblade Chronicles X	Ryyz
2016	Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness	Miki Sauvester

Awards and nominations

Awards won
Year	Award
2005	Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for All My Children
2005	Soap Opera Digest Award Outstanding Younger Lead Actress for All My Children
2004	GLAAD Media Award Favorite OUT Image of the Year Award for All My Children
2001	Soap Opera Digest Award Outstanding Female Newcomer for All My Children
Nominated
Year	Award
2004	Daytime Emmy Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for All My Children
2002	Daytime Emmy Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for All My Children
2001	Daytime Emmy Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for All My Children

On April 14, 2009, the 13th Annual Webby Award Nominations were announced. Riegel was nominated for her work on Imaginary Bitches in the Best Individual Performance category. Andrew Miller received an Official Honoree Selection for Best Writing. Eden Riegel was announced on May 5, 2009 as the winner of the Best Individual Performance People's Voice Award. Her acceptance speech, which was limited to five words, was: "I'm sleeping with the director."

[ Source: Wikipedia ]