Gloria Reuben

Gloria Reuben Speaker Biography

Gloria Reuben is an actress, singer and social activist who, over the past twenty years has amassed impressive credentials as a regular fixture on network and cable television, starred in numerous films, performed in a highly-touted off-Broadway production, toured with one of pop music’s most celebrated divas, and has successfully added “recording artist” to her list of accomplishments with the release of her debut solo album, Just for You.

Currently, Gloria has recently wrapped up filming of the second season of the hit show Raising the Bar on TNT. Many will remember Gloria as the health care professional Jeanie Boulet who traumatically battled HIV/AIDS on the hit NBC series ER, a role that garnered her multiple Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe nomination in a five-year run from 1994-2000. Gloria reappeared in the ER episode “Status Quo” in 2008, reprising her original role. From 2001-2002 she appeared in the CBS series The Agency and Lifetime TV’s series 1-800 Missing from 2003-2004. Gloria has also appeared in numerous TV movies, including Showtime’s Feast of All Saints, the CBS mini-series, Innocent Blood: The True Story of the Salem Witch Trials (opposite Shirley MacLaine), Indiscreet (with Luke Perry), Soul Survivor (with Billy Zane) Percy and Thunder (with James Earl Jones) for TNT, and CBS’s Deep In My Heart (with Ann Bancroft).

On stage Gloria has appeared as Condoleezza Rice in a production of Stuff Happens for which she won a Lucille Lortel Best Acting Award. Gloria’s talents on and off stage and screen were nurtured by her mother, a singer. As a child and in her teens Gloria was playing piano, studying music technique and theory at the Canadian Royal Conservatory and also studied ballet and jazz. She also managed to squeeze in a brief fling as a model before relocating to Los Angeles. Upon arriving in Hollywood, she landed a national television commercial, the residuals of which kept her afloat, allowing her to quit her job and commit to acting full time. Expanding her horizons, in 1996 on hiatus from ER, Gloria completed creative writing classes at Oxford University.

While Gloria’s acting career has always been on the fast track, her love for music had only sporadically surfaced prior to the Tina Turner 24/7 tour which she embarked on as a Back up singer after leaving ER in 2000. Subsequently she taught herself how to play the guitar and decided to record a few songs, explaining, “There’s always been a desire within me to make a record about the variations and mysteries of love.” Despite the music industry sending out mixed messages to aspiring new recording artists, Gloria opted to take the plunge and financed her own record. She enlisted Grammy Award-winning songwriter/producer Barry Eastmond (who has worked with such artists as Anita Baker, Britney Spears and Whitney Houston) to produce the nine tracks for Just for You.

Gloria is also a committed social activist, lending her time and talents to many environmental organizations such as the National Wildlife Federation, where she serves on the Board. She is on the Leadership Council for the National Resource Defense Council and is involved with the Waterkeeper Alliance, Bobby Kennedy, Jr.’s water preservation organization of which she served three years on the Board of Trustees.

In August 2008 she traveled to South Africa with Pamela W. Barnes, President and CEO of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, to tour key sites operated by the group. Gloria has recently become the spokesperson for the foundation. During the trip, she participated in launching Kerry Kennedy’s human rights program “Speak Truth to Power.”

Gloria is successful on the speaking circuit, touching on women’s issues, the arts, HIV/AIDS, and the environment.

When Gloria isn’t busy filming or expressing her commitment to social activism she likes to kick back by rooting for the Steelers or squeezing in some time for Bikram yoga!