The Drama Desk Award winner was born in Orlando, Florida, she says "to a band of traveling gypsy truth-seekers. Moving was almost a hobby for my restless and adventurous, courageous, parents." Her father, an electrical engineer and her mother, a high school/college English teacher raised Rachel to have an appreciation for music, art, literature and philosophy. "I needed passions that were portable," she recalls. They also equipped her with a very inquisitive and open mind. Being the youngest of four children, Rachel enjoyed making her family laugh by doing physical and vocal impersonations of celebrities and family members. Some of her fondest memories of childhood are dancing and singing harmony, with her mother at the piano.
Though known for being a clown at home Rachel York was, surprisingly, painfully shy at school and would have panic attacks whenever teachers asked her to read out loud in class, always managing (she feels) to appear like a bumbling idiot. Still, somewhere around the age of eleven she got it in her head that she was going to be an Actress Extraordinaire. There was only one problem: she was literally petrified to cold read, and at her first school play audition in 7th grade she chickened out. But, lucky for her, she discovered that same year in choir that she could sing circles around the other kids. A first choir solo brought "Rachel" out to play and her confidence grew three sizes that day.
After that magical moment in history she was in demand all over the world! Yeah...Well, let's just say she got into the school play that year and every other play throughout Junior High. Then, in her sophomore year of high school she was awarded the lead in the school play -- a role traditionally given to a senior. When her family moved yet again, she was cast as the title character in the school production of Evita for which she won the Macy Best Actress Award in competition with over seventy other schools. You may say, "That's just high school, man." But, it was only the event that encouraged Rachel to go for it. She was a good student, but couldn't bear to sit behind a desk, having been born under her parents' wandering star.
At 17 when she was still in High School and tackling her first professional chorus gig, the lead actress playing Kate in a dinner theatre production of "Kiss Me, Kate" fell ill. Suddenly, Rachel was hired to replace her because no one else could master the demanding vocal role with only two days to learn the part. Though she remembers swimming in the costumes and throwing up before each performance, she was ready for the "big time." Rachel moved to LA with a year scholarship at the American Center for Music Theatre at The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, studied privately with acting coach Aaron Speiser and got a job at a business management company computer processing the personal finances of major celebrities such as Jack Nicholson. Singing and dreaming as she typed were her only salvation working in a 5x5 room with no windows. When her boss later forbid her to sing on the job, Rachel vowed never again to work in an office or any place else where music is not welcome.
Speiser, always impressed with Rachel's work in class as well her performances in regional productions of "The Owl and The Pussy Cat", "Crimes of the Heart", "Summer and Smoke", "Butterflies Are Free", "Inherit the Wind" and "A Chorus Line", urged her to move to New York to hone her craft and make her mark in theatre. At 19 she ventured to the Big Apple and studied for a time at HB Studios with several respected coaches, among them Carol Rosenfeld. Hoping to acquire a well-rounded education and knowledge of different techniques, she later studied under George Morrison, April Shawn and her favorite coach Suzanne Shepherd ("The Sopranos").
In need of a theatrical agent, Rachel boldly walked into the office of Bill Timms. Timms recalls, "She had just stepped off 'the bus' wearing a bright blue dress, handed me this amazing demo-tape of her singing songs from "Evita" and blew me away with monologues from "Nuts" and "Sophie's Choice" using an impeccable Polish accent. I signed her on the spot. She can do anything."
After two years of intense and scary New York experiences and a few minor Off-Broadway plays and musicals here and there ("Where's Dick" at Playwrights Horizons, "A Minor Incident" at The West Bank Theatre, "Lost In The Stars" at The York Theatre), Rachel's fears of homelessness were put to rest when she got her first big break playing the seductive and playful role of Mallory in the original production of "City of Angels", directed by Michael Blakemore and starring James Naughton. She earned her first great Broadway reviews. After a year in the Tony Award-winning show, Rachel went on to expand her resume with appearances on "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd", and "LA Law", and roles in films such as "Billy Bathgate", "Killer Instinct", "Taking the Heat" (for Showtime) and "Dead Center".
Soon the stage came calling again with an offer to play Fantine in "Les Miserables", a role she felt reflected her intense struggle to "make it" on Broadway (metaphorically of course, since she did not resort to prostitution or have a child out of wedlock). From there she went on to star in Sondheim's "Putting It Together" at Manhattan Theatre Club in which she earned incredible critical acclaim, a Drama Desk nomination and the pleasure of sharing a dressing room with Dame Julie Andrews. "We share a 'cheeky' sense of humor," says Rachel, "and have remained friends to this day. Whenever Julie was feeling a bit glum before a performance I loved teasing her with my rendition of 'It's A Jolly Holiday With Julie' with me playing Julie and of course all of the barn animals, too."
That summer Rachel enjoyed sinking her teeth into a straight play, portraying the British villainess in the Sherlock Holmes play "Crucifer of Blood" at the Purchase Theatre. However, it was during the run of "Putting It Together" that Andrews' husband Blake Edwards discovered in Rachel the singing talent and comic genius to pull off the role of Norma Cassidy in his Broadway production of "Victor/Victoria". Rachel starred for a second time with Julie Andrews and was awarded the Drama Desk Award for her performance.
Rachel continued to enjoy a bi-coastal acting career in NY and LA appearing in memorable performances in "Fraiser", "Spin City", "Diagnosis Murder", "The Naked Truth", "Fantasy Island" (pilot), "Son of the Beach", "Terror Tract" (a movie for USA), "Second Honeymoon" (CBS MOW w/ Roma Downey & Tim Matheson) and "Au Pair II" (movie for Fox Family), as well as starring in Broadway's acclaimed second opening of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" along with Douglas Sills and Rex Smith.
York and Smith recently reteamed in the National tour of the hit Broadway revival, "Kiss Me, Kate". Her performance as Lilli Vanessi/Kate earned her a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best Actress". Excited to return to the theatre after almost 2 years, Rachel says, "I felt so fortunate not to have been pigeon-holed. I have had and continue to enjoy so many opportunities working in different facets of the entertainment industry. There's no business that hones the soul and builds character more than show business."
Ms. York made her London debut in Summer 2002 in the West End version of "Kate" along with fellow American, Brent Barrett. This production is immortalized with a PBS taped performance that aired in late 2002. The pair again starred together in the LA production of "Anything Goes" at the Broadway Reprise theatre. Rachel is looking forward to staying at "home" (her real "home" at long last being Los Angeles) for a little while and getting back to more television and film after more than a year on the road
York is also in the process of creating her first pop album including seven love songs she has written from the heart. She and her manager, Kimberly Horton, hope to go into production on the album in the spring of 2003. Meanwhile, you can hear Rachel featured on the soundtracks of "Billy Bathgate", "City of Angels", "Putting It Together", "Victor/Victoria", "The Scarlet Pimpernel Encore CD", "Opal, Honkey Tonk Highway and Other Theater Songs" by Robert Nassif Lindsey and "Celebration of Life".
