MY STORY

My stage debut was in Little Rock, Arkansas at age 3, when I was cast as the Little Lost Angel in The Nutcracker. As I stepped out onto the stage, everyone oooh-ed and awww-ed. Just as we had rehearsed, I ran across the stage and then exited (my only stage direction) to uproarious laughter and applause. Sure, it was just because 3 year olds in angel costumes running is funny, but I was hooked. There, my comedy career was born.

When I was in 4th grade my brother started doing commercials. Not to be outdone by a younger sibling, I tagged along to auditions. Soon I was starring in my first campaign for TCBY yogurt, where a director insisted my “boyfriend” in the spot feed me a milkshake. “No thanks,” I said. “I’ll feed myself. There, my feminism was born.

My love of singing got me up an hour before school to join the Madrigals in high school as an alto. I did musicals wherever I could - church, school, and the local Arts Center. I was too “funny” to ever be the ingenue, always the witch or the aunt or the crazy next door neighbor. Which was fine because as an alto, I realized what I really cherished was being the harmony. Finally my senior year I was cast as the lead in our high school musical. When someone who didn’t get the lead burned down our high school theater (this is true), we remade the entire set and put it up at the local college. We were determined little artists.

Cut to college at Northwestern. After auditioning for everything as a freshman and getting nothing, someone said, “Hey there’s an audition where you don’t have to memorize anything!” There my love of improv comedy was born. I joined a troupe and started taking classes at IO Chicago. After graduating I would go on to join the company ComedySportz Chicago, where I was challenged to create comedy for audiences for all ages. You try getting suggestions like “proctologist” and “porno store” and making it family friendly.

While at ComedySportz I met the producer of The Vagina Monologues which was playing in Chicago who encouraged me to audition for a spot that was opening up. Soon I took over for Kim Fields in the Equity production, at the time the youngest member who had ever been cast, and earned my Equity card and my first agent.

I began being cast in regional musicals like Second City’s Romeo and Juliet Musical which played for two smash seasons at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. I joined the company of Scrooge with Richard Chamberlain for the National Tour. After a few more shows, I was diagnosed with cysts on my vocal cords which had to be removed. Now I couldn't sing for a year. What’s a girl to do? There began my stand up career.

I started doing open mics in Chicago, and was soon hosting at The Chicago Improv. I got cast in some very nice commercials which earned me my SAG card, and some voice over projects, that got me my AFTRA card. I am dating myself by letting you know at the time they were separate. Oh well.

Then it was time to move to LA. I packed my car and headed west. The very first audition I had for was a commercial for Baby Bel Cheese. What a start. I was cast as the lead in their campaign that lasted 5 years and produced 4 commercials, the first of which is best known for my “Up top sir!” line that was improvised. Big ups to the extra who inspired it, I cannot take all the credit.

I began doing road work all over the country, and was invited to do 4 tours overseas with Armed Forces Entertainment, performing for troops everywhere from Kyrgyzstan to Dubai to Djbouti. I freelanced for SNL’s Weekend Update. Wrote some nice TV dialogue for the fantastic Chrissy Teigen and LL Cool J. Wrote on an animated pilot that the Scientologist lawyers killed (they are for real, y’all). I was a Story Producer on a show called “So That Happened!” which you’ll never believe, didn’t actually happen. However I did get to live out my dream of renting a full truck of puppies for a sketch for a day and frankly now I can die happy.

Around then social media began to explode and I started playing around with a little thing called Twitter. My handle, @sbellelauren, comes from a college nickname all the kids from the north gave me, “Southern Belle Lauren” or SB. I was the only person in my freshman class from Arkansas that year and it was like being a unicorn at the petting zoo.

For some reason my tweets resonated with people, probably because my twitter is the version of me if there were no morals or consequences, which, let’s face it, sounds fun. I began to amass a following which has like, not Taylor Swift numbers, but hey, it’s not bad. Media agencies began to take note of my ability to convey humor in 140 characters or less, and I was hired at numerous agencies as a copywriter for social media to promote tv and film. I loved it.

Recently I was invited to freelance with the agency Arnold Worldwide as a Senior Copywriter, where I created and contributed to campaigns for Progressive Insurance. I developed a following for my best friend and dog Harry on instagram @senordirtyharry, and run another very under-followed but fun account @deeppawghts. It’s for me.

I do comedy in a lot of different mediums. In my heart, it’s always comedy first. Comedy, copywriting, and canines. That’s my life. Thanks for reading. I’m gonna go pet my dog now.