WesCeleb: Mia Ronn ’27 on Professional Acting, Creative Directing Abroad, and New York

For as long as she can remember, Mia Ronn ’27 has had an unyielding passion for acting and theater. From getting cast in the hit TV series “Black-ish,” to being a lead in “Rip Her to Shreds” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Ronn has explored a great deal of what the theater world has to offer. This week, The Argus sat down with Ronn to discuss her acting career and her role as an actor to build human connections and find community. 

The Argus: Why do you think you were nominated to be a WesCeleb?

Mia Ronn: I feel like I’ve made my presence at the University known over the years. One of the most important things about my college experience overall has been connecting with as many people as possible. I feel like I have my heart in a lot of different places on campus, and with different people across different grades and social circles. I mean, I’ve taken a really weird range of classes because the theater major is pretty straightforward. I’ve kind of tiptoed around everything, so I feel like I’ve connected with people across majors too.

A: How and why did you first begin your acting career? 

MR: It’s sort of a classic story; I came out of the womb wanting to act. Every time I’ve tried to do other things, or when I haven’t had my performing or acting class fix, I always feel like there’s something missing. It was one of my ways of connecting with people and communicating. I think it’s my creative outlet and it’s also taught me so much about myself and about the person that I want to be. 

I grew up in Los Angeles and when I started auditioning, my parents said “absolutely not, no child acting.” And then when I hit 15, I was still begging, so I started auditioning right before the pandemic, and I booked my first couple of in-person auditions, so I got to do a movie and a TV show. It was just so crazy to be on sets and I loved it so much. But then everything went virtual and it’s been tough since then. Self tapes are brutal and I hate them. Acting is just such a human thing. I also think about the frightening direction the world is going, and I feel very comforted by the fact that theater can’t be touched. It’s always live, it’s always going to be just people in a room.

A: How does your relationship with acting impact your life outside of performance?

MR: I always find it difficult to talk about acting because it’s so strange. I think as a performer, my relationship with acting just ebbs and flows, and sometimes it’s really hard and weird when your art is just yourself. It definitely does make you very aware of your own mannerisms because you’re doing vocal training and physical training. It’s so much untraining the stuff that you learn.

When you’re a kid, you’re so free and reactive and expressive, and then you get trained to behave in some sort of a socially acceptable manner, and I think most conservatories essentially untrain a lot of that. I always notice that when I am actively training, like when I was at BADA (British American Drama Academy), or when I’m taking a really great acting class, or I’m doing a show, I feel I’m warming up a lot. I feel so much more comfortable in my day to day life. I find myself just a lot more physically free. 

A: Why did you choose Wesleyan over attending a conservatory or launching into the professional acting world?

MR: The University’s theater program is definitely not mainstream; it’s very interdisciplinary. If you’re a theater major, regardless of the track you want, you’re gonna have to take some production design classes. I’m working in the costume shop right now. Wesleyan theater has taught me to learn a lot of different things, and it’s very collaborative, which I really appreciate. I was actually just talking to Robin, who does all the costume design, and it’s incredible about how it really works. 

I had that brief moment of going abroad and having a semester of attending a conservatory, which was really cool, because BADA was not like acting classes here at the University; it was so intense. When I was at the conservatory, it was me and 40 actors, and we lived together. It was really cool to be surrounded by a bunch of actors who just push each other. But I think it’s nice to have a balance of perspectives because I came back here and I now live with a painter and a sociologist and a filmmaker and a very business-minded person. 

I also think a good actor needs to be a well-rounded person and take a bunch of different classes. That’s why I chose Wesleyan over a conservatory. I know what I want to do pretty definitively, but I love a lot of different things, and I feel like there are so many ways I want to grow. When I toured, I was like, oh, this is what I want: This capital C college experience and I’m so happy with that decision. 

A: Can you tell me about your experience at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh performing in “Rip Her to Shreds?”

MR: I started the summer working as the assistant director and creative intern for a Wes alum named Miranda Heyman in New York City, and it was really cool. I was only expecting to spend the first two months of the summer in New York. I was certainly not expecting to get to do any acting. I wanted to try out the other side of this world and see if maybe I could be inclined towards directing. It was cool, but I was lying to myself about what I like. I know what I want to be doing and my favorite part of the internship was being in the room for this play called “Rip Her to Shreds” that Miranda was directing. It was a new work by Isabelle Barbier. It’s this weird, witchy, dark comedy about a bunch of college girls in a dorm room; it gets very dark and there’s an exorcism. 

I then went to Los Angeles for a callback. The next day, Miranda calls me and is like, “I need you to come back to New York. One of the actresses for ‘Rip Her to Shreds’ just dropped out and I’m gonna push for you to take over.” I had a week to learn the script because we had two New York previews and everybody was a little bit concerned because the other actors are all 35 and have been working on this play for 10 years. 

Once we went to Scotland we were still in rehearsals, so we’re still blocking the show, but we also had a reviewer coming the next day. At the Edinburgh Fringe, there are basically 4,000 shows happening at once. The marketing stuff is hard because everyone’s sort of competing for attention and for their show to get seen. That’s another thing about Fringe: It works really funny because you do everything yourself. You don’t have the typical level of support that you would normally have. You’re doing more than an actor is normally expected to do; we did the set design. It’s so high energy that I was so wiped out, frankly. But I feel so lucky and grateful to have had that experience. It felt like magic. 

We ended up getting to be directors in a way. Our producers leave, so you’re just there for a month doing the show every day with no outside eye, and nobody to tell you what works and what doesn’t. So you just have to figure it out. It broke down a lot of my fears about not being good enough or not being ready to perform. 

A: You mentioned earlier you have acted on screen. What was your experience like on these shows or movies?

MR: The TV show was Black-ish. I did a couple episodes, so I had a little part in that. But it was really cool to see how a sitcom functions. I would really love to be on a TV show in the future because it’s so wonderfully stable that you get to really be with a character for a long time. My second audition was for Clifford the Big Red Dog, the live-action movie. My first scene ever was on Madison Avenue, across from one of the big museums. I just remember freaking out because there were all these people watching us film. It was crazy, and there was a giant dog puppet. 

A: Do you have any ideas about your post-grad career?

MR: I mean, the hope is moving to New York partially because there’s this wonderful creative network of Wesleyan people who are going to move to New York. So ideally, move to New York, have like 80 roommates, and probably just start auditioning as much as possible. I feel very open to the possibility of doing a lot of different things. I don’t know if I’ve ever been a person who’s like “this is my path and this is my passion.” I just feel very open to how wide the world is. I could definitely see myself teaching, or doing some kind of childcare or therapy. Therapy does feel like a similar sort of practice to acting, it’s based on your desire to connect with people and to help understand other people. I feel like my curiosity about people has always been my biggest driver with everything.

A: If you could tell your first-year self one thing, what would it be?

MR: There are so many things I want to tell her. As much as she doesn’t feel like she is, she’s doing it right. I just think college is so much wondering if there is another way I’m supposed to be doing this. I am definitely an overthinker, but I am right to believe that it’s going to shake out how it should, so just keep leading with your heart. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Chloe Rappaport Crowther can be reached at crappaportcr@wesleyan.edu.