Hello.
I am Beth Riesgraf, and I would say I'm most known for
my role on Leverage.
On TNT's Leverage, I play Parker.
I got into acting, I suppose as a kid.
I really loved it.
My mom bought me a lot of Disney movies
and things like that.
And my grandma used take me to the
children's theater in Minnesota.
But I never considered it an option, I guess, because I was
in farm country, you know?
So I started out wanting to help people, and
so I became a masseuse.
I worked at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, thinking
I'm really going to help people.
Next thing I know, I'm massaging Billy Idol, and
people who are wasted all the time and trying to hit on me,
and you know, offering me tips for other things.
So I decided screw it, I'm going to go after my dream and
pursue photography and filmmaking, and
I wound up in LA.
When I started auditioning for commercials, I realized it was
what I loved to do.
I loved telling stories, I love playing characters.
And so when I started booking commercials and got a
theatrical agent, I thought, oh, this was always in me from
even when I was a kid.
So I sort of made the transition in that way with it
just started happening.
And I hate when people say, oh, it just happened, because
I worked really hard at it.
Yeah, Leverage has changed my life in so many ways.
I mean, location-wise, I'm living out of the
state half the year.
And also, the cast has become like my second
family, and the crew.
So I've taken in all these family members, basically.
And it's weird to imagine my life without
them at this point.
One of the things I'm getting really into right now is
writing and directing.
And I recently made a little project
called A Standard Story.
And it's done pretty well so far.
It won a couple of awards at a festival, so I'm
excited to do more.
Yeah, I grew up playing Super Mario Bros and Nintendo.
I remember having my first Apple computer, and it was
like the size of a truck.
So I've always loved video games.
But I don't feel like I'm qualified to call myself a
gamer, because those guys are like total bad asses who know
the ins and outs of all the games, and I don't.
But I'm good for like a little round of, you know, Scrabble
or Sevens, or Trouble, or those types of games I love.
Gaming is for people who know how to have fun.
