Ariana Madix Has Transcended Reality TV Fame for Real Fame, and She Deserves It

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | August 22, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | August 22, 2024 |

In this post-Scandoval timeline we’ve found ourselves in, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that the cast of Vanderpump Rules were, originally, hopeful actors and models and DJs living and working in LA, trying to make it. These people, like most old-timey reality stars, were interesting because they weren’t famous or successful. Ariana Madix may be the star of Chicago on the great white way now, but she was one of them once. The difference between her and someone like LaLa Kent is that she was never going to be content with simply being a reality star.

“Growing up, I danced as a little kid,” Madix recently told Kristin Chenoweth for Interview Magazine. “I always wanted to do theater. I did theater as a kid in junior high, elementary school, high school, and onward into college,” where she majored in theater. “I moved to New York to try to do theater, but I didn’t know anybody, I had no representation, and I’m also short,” she explained.

“I was not going to be in the chorus of The Producers. I don’t have legs for days. So I tried to make that happen, but I had to survive. So living in New York is when I learned how to bartend, and that’s how I was surviving. I was just hustling and I had a million different jobs. I was promoting cigarettes, I was go-go dancing in Meatpacking at clubs, I was doing sketch comedy videos for websites. I was doing whatever I could to make money while also, in my mind, trying to be like, ‘You’re an actor, you want to perform.’ So eventually, I moved to L.A. with the dream that I would get some TV credits. If I really, really gave it a shot and I really, really committed myself to L.A., maybe I would be able to come back to New York one day and make my theater dreams happen.”

She debuted her Roxie Hart in January of this year and was originally set to perform only through March but was extended through April after rave reviews. She left briefly to film Love Island, and now she’s back for the month of August. This is not just another fun little celebrity cameo—Madix actually has the chops. Her time in Chicago may be coming to a close soon, but I doubt this is the last we’ll see of her.