Laurel Schweidel

Hello world!!! Welcome to my UCI blog!!

I’m Laurel Schweidel, a third year Drama major focusing on acting and musical theatre. I also love creative writing, baking, and improv, and I’m from Berkeley, California!

Here’s my fancy actor headshot and also a picture of me looking silly with my friend/mom Alana.

It’s difficult to get to know who someone is through a short blog post, but I’m gonna do my best! Here are a few fun facts and favorites to give you a sense of who I am:

• For people who are into personality tests and types (which my roommate/bff Sasha and I have spent a ridiculous number of hours poring over), I am an INFJ, Type 2 of the nine Enneagram types, and a Gemini (Sagittarius moon and Taurus rising if you’re really curious).

• In terms of campus involvements…

  • I am a tour guide/Campus Representative, which has brought me so many friends and opportunities, and has also challenged me to grow in a million different ways!

My lil reps family (my mentor, her mentee, and my mentee), and my mentee’s training family!

• I’m also the junior captain of one of our improv teams on campus, Improv Revolution. These involvements have brought me some of the most amazing friends a gal could ask for, and have been more personally enriching than I ever could have dreamed!

The team lookin’ spiffy at our quarterly banquet and at our “Luck Be a Lady” Show!

• I don’t know how to ride a bike.

• A few current favorite musical artists: Whitney, Bad Bad Hats, Langhorne Slim, The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers, Chance The Rapper, Anais Mitchell, and John Mayer.

• As you can probably tell from that long list of musicians, I LOVE MUSIC! I also really like making mix CDs for my friends, so I made this playlist just for YOU! Give it a listen!

• My favorite animal/the animal I think I’m most like is a hummingbird.

• My room is almost ALWAYS messy. Ask Sasha.

• I love to draw and write songs! Check out my art instagram if you’re interested! Also I love pinterest, so here’s my pinterest, which has a whole board of pretty kitchens.

• I love to read! Here are a few of my favorite books, in no particular order.

  • How to Fall in Love with Anyone by Mandy Len Catron

  • If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut

  • One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak

  • Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

• My favorite movies are Arrival, Good Will Hunting, and Little Miss Sunshine!

• I love UCI’s Gender and Sexuality Studies department, and might pursue a minor in it!

• I love poetry, and have taken many wonderful poetry classes at UCI.

• Mental health and self-care are a big part of my life!

• TV shows I’m loving right now:

  • The Great British Baking Show (The kindness! The accents! The desserts!!!)

  • Jane the Virgin (Love the acting and the drama)

  • This is Us (Gives my emotions/tear ducts a workout)

  • The Handmaid’s Tale (So freaking scary but I can’t help but love it)

  • Queer Eye (!!! What’s not to love?!)

• Last but certainly not least, I have a lot of wonderful and important people in my life!! There’s my family (including my dog Leonard whom I love dearly), friends from home, my roommate/bff Sasha, tour guide friends, friends who I met in my freshman year hall at UCI (WOODHALL REPRESENT), drama friends, and improv friends! Here are some sweet pictures of them!

Leonard and the rest of my fam!

Woodhall friends and a few friends from home!

I hope this post has given you a sense of who I am! I look forward to interacting with y’all through this blogging journey! Zot zot zot!