American Dreams

Background:

"I was inspired to be an actress by other great actresses. I want to be like them, and have a lot of fun acting so that makes me want to do it more." Sarah Ramos.

Preteen actress Sarah Ramos, whose favorite actresses are Amanda Bynes, Cameron Diaz, and Reese Witherspoon, began developing her acting abilities at age 9 and was trained at Center Stage in L.A. After appearing in a variety of commercials and in several student films, she landed her most popular role to date, as Patricia "Patty" Pryor, the brainy and the youngest of the Pryor girls, in the NBC serial dramedy "American Dreams" (2002-2005), which earned her three Young Artist Award nominations.

In 2006, Sarah played Hannah Rader, the only daughter of Donnie Wahlberg and Leslie Hope's characters, in the short-lived drama series on The CW, "Runaway." She also has guest-starred in "Scrubs," "Close to Home," and "Law & Order."

As for her big screen works, Sarah, who has starred in the short films "In Vein" (2001) and "Walking Out on Love" (2007), will next be seen as the younger version to Thora Birch's character in the upcoming film "Winter of Frozen Dreams."

"Make sure it's what you really want to do because it takes a lot of time and it's a lot of hard work. It's harder than it seems and you have to miss a lot of school and you have to go on a lot of auditions and you just have to really want to do it." Sarah Ramos (her advice to aspiring actress).

Sarah Emily

Childhood and Family:

In Los Angeles, California, Sarah Emily Ramos was born on May 21, 1991. She is of Spanish heritage and is from Hispanic and Jewish descent. She now resides in Los Angeles with her family. She has one brother.

Sarah is schooled on the set, but when she is not working, she attends the high school at public school. In her spare time, Sarah, who alongside co-star Vanessa Lengies are cheerleaders for the basketball team "The Hollywood Knights," enjoys playing soccer, horseback riding, singing, dancing, hanging out with her friends, and writing several situation-comedy pilots. She also works for a teen violence protection program, which her aunt founded.

"When I was bored, I would just write stuff. It was just fun to do. I think when I'm older I might want to be a director and an actor. I just don't know yet." Sarah Ramos.

Runaway

Career:

"I've only done theater work for my school, so it's a lot different because it's not professional and there's not all the people. We had one director who did a bunch of other stuff, too, so it's a lot different doing professional television work." Sarah Ramos.

At the age of 9, Sarah Ramos began developing her acting abilities and received a formal training at Center Stage in L.A. While continuing to study her craft, Ramos has performed in a number of school plays and musicals. She also starred in a variety of commercials, including for Ford, Boeing, and Universal Studios, as well as appeared in several student films, including "Gel," "Advertising Is Hell," "Rule of Thumb," and the independent feature "Blastzone."

Recalling on how she got started on her acting career, Ramos said, "We heard this advertisement on the radio and we went there but it turned out it was a scam, and they wanted a lot of money. My mom took me to get pictures done and then we sent them out to agencies. And the ones who liked the pictures called us and then I auditioned for them."

In 2001, when she was 10, Ramos landed his first big screen role, as the 6-year-old version to Eileen O'Connor's Elizabeth, in Tarik Polansky's 25-minute short horror film, "In Vein." In the following year, she got her most popular role to date, as Patricia "Patty" Pryor, the brainy and the youngest of the Pryor girls, in the NBC serial dramedy "American Dreams." Staying on the show from its premiere on September 29, 2002 to its third season finale on March 30, 2005, Ramos received Young Artist Award nominations three times, for Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) - Supporting Young Actress (2005), for Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) - Young Actress Age Ten or Younger (2004), and for Best Ensemble in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama), which she shared with co-stars Ethan Dampf, Vanessa Lengies, and Brittany Snow.

On playing Patty on “American Dreams,” Ramos admitted, "It's a lot of fun because she's so different from me. She's so bratty and I get to be bratty and stuff. Everybody on 'American Dreams' is really nice and really funny, so it's just a lot of fun going there every day... She's really smart and she's really bratty to her sisters and she corrects her family. She always has to be right. She thinks her younger brother is stupid. But she can be really nice sometimes; she's a really nice person on the inside."

And when asked what she has learned from the 60s-set show, Ramos explained, "I learned a lot about the music and TV and about how they did stuff, and how it was that people were discriminatory against others. It was not just that they didn't like the people, they did really mean things to them. People didn't have as many rights as we do now."

Following the demise of “American Dreams,” Ramos co-starred as Hannah Rader, a high school sophomore and the only daughter of Donnie Wahlberg and Leslie Hope's characters, in the short-lived drama series on The CW, "Runaway," which began airing on September 25, 2006 before eventually canceled on October 15, 2006.

Meanwhile, was spotted as a guest in an episode of NBC/ABC Emmy and Peabody Award-winning sitcom "Scrubs," CBS crime/legal drama starring Jennifer Finnigan, "Close to Home," and NBC police procedural and legal drama series "Law & Order."

Ramos co-starred with Juliet Bradford and Tyler Bosserman in Beau Yarrow's 20-minute short drama film "Walking Out on Love" (2007) and has completed filming "Winter of Frozen Dreams," an upcoming crime/history movie directed by Eric Mandelbaum in which she portrays the younger version to Thora Birch's lead character Barbara.

"What I like least is probably that you have to wake up really, really early sometimes. What I like best is that it's a lot of fun and the people that I work with right now are really nice." Sarah Ramos (on what she likes best and least about the acting business).

Awards:
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