Leven Rambin Makes a Difference On and Off Screen

For most, breaking into the acting industry can be a long and often unlikely hurdle to climb. But for Leven Rambin, that daunting challenge lasted as long as her very first audition.

“I wasn’t really expecting anything,” explains the humble Rambin, who two years ago landed the role of Lily Montgomery on “All My Children” at the age of 14. “I was just so excited to have that opportunity as my first audition.”

After completing that first audition, Rambin continued testing the waters around L.A. for a couple months. She eventually received a call from the casting directors at the soap, asking her to fly to New York to test for her current role.

“I was shocked and really surprised,” Rambin says of the initial call back. “So I came and the rest I guess you can say is history. I felt really fortunate. I was kind of naïve at the time, but now I’m really grateful.”

Rambin is a native of Houston, Texas. She got her first taste of the acting bug while performing in a school play, playing the part of Peter Pan.

“I always knew that acting was what I wanted to do,” she explains. “That was sort of my first step into it.”

The young actress went on to study at the Houston School of Film and Theatre before eventually heading out to L.A. to follow her aspirations. Since her arrival, Rambin has garnered much attention, earning a nomination this year for a Daytime Emmy in the category of Outstanding Younger Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

“I was just really excited and honored to be a part of the Emmys,” Rambin acknowledges. “It’s the best thing that can happen to you when you’re on that show and you work so hard. You feel really appreciated that people notice what you do. It was one of the coolest things to be treated like that and be recognized in that way.”

The nomination was further assurance to the up-and-coming actress, especially since she’s such a newcomer to the industry.

“It was confirmation that I love what I do,” Rambin explains. “I want to keep being successful and I really want to move forward with my career. It’s a really good steppingstone to get to where I ultimately want to go.”

On the long-running ABC soap, Rambin plays an autistic teenage girl. She says that she dug into her own childhood experiences to help prepare for the challenging part.

“I knew someone in Texas when I was growing up that had autism,” Rambin explains. “I watched how he grew up, how he kind of grew into it, the way he dealt with it, and how his parents helped him. I was really lucky to get that first-hand experience.

“That’s pretty much what I had to go on when I had the auditions, because I didn’t really have any time to do anything else.”

Despite the challenges surrounding her role (which was previously played by Mischa Barton), Rambin says that she was not nearly as nervous as one might expect.

“I probably should have been more nervous, because I really didn’t realize how powerful the media was,” she says. “Coming into it, I’m kind of glad that I wasn’t so intimidated, because that would have probably ruined my performance.”

In addition to immersing herself into her character on camera, Rambin has also made the role part of her real life as well, working with Cure Autism Now in an attempt to raise awareness for those in need.

“I think it’s really important to find out what causes it,” Rambin says. “One out of every 156 children are diagnosed with autism now. It was much more rare 30 years ago, so it’s obviously something in modern society that’s causing this.”

Rambin is currently preparing to host a number of Cure Autism Now campaigns all over the country, in addition to doing several public service announcements.

“I’m glad that I can put a face to a cause, because it’s a really interesting topic,” she says. “If I can draw more attention to it, I think that’s really the best thing that I can do for it. I hope to be more alluring to whoever wants to cure autism.”

Rambin feels that one of the most important messages to get across about autism is that every victim is different.

“Autism has a lot of different levels and severities,” she explains. “I also think it’s really important to understand where people with autism come from and the way they think before anybody judges them for their actions.”

For her efforts, Rambin has been recognized by Teen People, which named her to their list of Top 20 Teens Changing the World.

“That was amazing,” she says of the honor. “I really enjoyed that experience. That was just another good thing to be a part of.”

In addition to the long hours often required when shooting a soap, Rambin explains that there are other unique challenges as well.

“Recently, I haven’t been working that much because we do have 50 characters,” Rambin says. “Everyone kind of just has to take their turn and be patient with it.

“And if you really like work like I do, and then you just don’t work for three weeks, it’s really frustrating and you can’t do anything about it. You have to be confident in your position and know that you’re not going to get fired.”

Now 16, Rambin is still in high school and taking all of her classes online in the midst of her busy work schedule.

“I went to a normal school for a while and I really didn’t enjoy it at all,” says the junior, who plans to attend college in California so that she can continue acting. “I just never really felt like I fit in there. Everyone was so young and I never really felt like I could communicate with them very well.

“I kind of grew up really fast and most of my friends are 20-plus years old and the things that I do really aren’t what normal kids do. It’s kind of been like a good and a bad thing. I think sometimes I wish I could just be random and just go do something silly, but at the same time I get to go to Marc Jacobs front row. It’s a trade-off, but a good one.”

Earlier this year, Rambin expanded her career by taking on the role of Caroline Paxton on NBC’s “The Book of Daniel.” It was an experience that she thoroughly enjoyed.

“That was really cool,” says Rambin, who splits her time between Connecticut and New York, where the soap is filmed. “I loved working a different schedule, a different place, a different environment, different people. It was really high-profile people like Aidan Quinn and Ellen Burstyn. It was just good to have my name attached to that kind of project.”

In addition to her acting, the 5’7″ Rambin also works as a model for the Ford Agency, mostly specializing in commercial print. As for the future, she says that her main focus is to continue furthering her career and make it to the big screen one day soon.

“I’d like to be in movies and be a respected actress like Scarlett Johansson,” she says. “I’d like to take on more serious roles. I just think those are more interesting and they affect people more.”

One thing that Rambin certainly won’t do is forget how blessed she is to have arrived so quickly.

“I’m still pretty level-headed about it,” Rambin says of her success. “You have to realize what’s real and what’s going to be there for you at the end of the day.

“I still find myself surprised that I get all these opportunities, and that people pay attention to me and take my picture. I still kind of find funniness in everything.”