Photographybymarlenemccohen : MARLENEMCCOHEN

MARLENEMCCOHEN

Marlene Mc’Cohen was destined to travel. She was born in Oldham, England but spent her first three birthdays in three different countries. Eventually settling in New Jersey, her family continued to move around within the district. Marlene never spent more than two years in any school and from an early age began to look at her life as a great adventure. She knew her life was different as soon as anyone asked about her family. It was with stories about her parents that she would often make friends. Her mom was born and raised in Ireland and her father grew up in Iran and with English being her father’s third language he would often use phrases like “short sleeved trousers” for shorts. The comedy that came out of the unique make up of her family gave Marlene a knack for storytelling and she hasn’t stopped since. From the time Marlene could talk she would always occupy herself creatively, whether it was drawing, singing or writing poetry. When Marlene was five years old she told her father she wanted to be Madonna when she grew up. Her father, thinking she would grow out of it, made it clear that the entertainment industry was not a realistic option and pushed her to become a writer. However, Marlene began putting up plays for the neighborhood and turned every family event into a production, writing scripts and casting all her cousins. Marlene spent her forteenth birthday on a plane to Israel where she would spend the rest of her high school years. Six months earlier she had given a speech at her Bat-Mitzvah admitting that her dream was to be bilingual. Her father, believing that you can’t learn a language properly without learning the culture, moved the family to Israel “for the experience” for what was only supposed to be for one year. After only eight months in Israel Marlene conquered the language and was accepted to a prestigious high school theatre program. After high school Marlene had dreams of pursuing an acting career but her father said, “Get your degree and we’ll talk”. Marlene got two degrees. While working on her broadcasting degree Marlene got a job at the local news channel. She actually called her father and told him that she had decided to pursue news after college, he was relieved. But two weeks later a change of fate came when she got cast as the lead in her first film, “Noir”. Marlene quit her local news job and hasn’t looked back since. After college Marlene moved to New York to pursue acting, thinking that would be her last stop but once again fate stepped in. She was noticed in a showcase that she did with her brother in Dallas and within three weeks they were on a plane to LA. In the last year Marlene has guest starred in "It's always Sunny in Philadelphia", starring Danny DeVito and been in eight independent films including, “Her Morbid Desires,” starring Tippi Hedren from Hitchcock’s, “The Birds”. She is also the Los Angeles correspondent for “The Mike Sherman Show” and has interviewed celebrities such as Hugh Hefner. Marlene changed her last name to Mc’Cohen to honor both her Irish mother and Israeli father on the way to achieving her dreams. She studies at the Playhouse West repertory theatre, the original home of Sanford Meisner’s Los Angeles classes. Marlene studies under the instruction of Robert Carnegie.