Some Things You May or May Not Know About Reiko Aylesworth

Some of these you have probably seen if you have looked at Reiko’s page on IMDB (who do you think added most of it?) or if you’ve visited Reiko-Aylesworth.net. Others are facts that are not nearly as well known.

• Reiko was born on December 9, 1972 in Chicago, Illinois at Evanston Hospital. Almost ten years earlier, her future 24 co-star Carlos Bernard was born in the same hospital.¹
• Her heritage if ¼ Japanese (thus her name and gorgeous eyes), ¼ Welch, and ½ Dutch.²
• Her first name is pronounced “Ray-co,” which is Japanese for “child of thankfulness” or “child of gratitude.”
• Reiko, her mom, stepdad, and siblings later moved to Springfield, Illinois in 1987. Her stepdad took her to an acting class and ever since she’s been in love with the art.³ She was an understudy on several plays⁴ before being cast as Consuelo in West Side Story.⁵
• Before West Side Story finished its run, her family moved to Seattle, but Reiko stayed behind with family friends so she could finish the play.⁶ After joining her family in Seattle, she continued working in theatre and attended the University of Washington to study neural science with the goal of becoming a researcher and/or professor. At the same time she was cast as Wendy in the Intiman Theatre Company’s production of Peter Pan. This role would later get her an audition for her first film role; One Life to Live.
• Is extremely good at pool, having learned how to play in high school.⁸ When you see her characters playing pool such as on The Dead Zone, it really is Reiko doing it, not some expert they brought it to shoot for her.
• Reiko is a huge fan of rodeo.⁹ When she was on 24, Reiko preferred to go out to local rodeos with the Teamsters rather than to celebrity events.¹⁰
• Considers theatre to be the purist form of acting and it will always be her first love.¹¹
• Reiko auditioned for the role of Nina Myers in Season 1 of 24, losing out only to Sarah Clarke with whom she became friends. For Season 2, she auditioned for the role of Kate Warner, losing out only to Sarah Wynter. TPTB were impressed with Reiko and cast her instead as Michelle Dessler. Besides her strong audition, another thing that helped Reiko was she was well known for being on a lot of failed pilots, but in Hollywood, pilots (most of which aren’t picked up or quickly fail) are considered extremely valuable for an actor’s resume, not a negative. The one that helped her land a role on 24 was The American Embassy.¹²
• Would have liked a “bigger death” for Michelle or to die in a “better way,” but Reiko knows that on 24, everyone gets killed sooner or later and Michelle escaped death on more than one prior occasion. She was “okay” with the ending of her character.¹³
• Thinks that award shows are mostly boring although the SAG awards are fun because most people just goof off.¹⁴
• She enjoys “simple things” and “being weird,” the latter why she had fun playing Daisy in Shooting Vegetarians.¹⁵
• Loves to work with kids, both on and off screen.¹⁶
• Thinks Los Angeles is a “weird place.”¹⁷
• One night while filming AvP-R, Reiko got hypothermia and felt as if she was drunk and started to run into things.¹⁸
• Spent countless hours on the gun range in preparation for AvP-R with her weapons instructor who is a former Army Ranger. He fought and was wounded in the Battle of Mogadishu which most people know as Blackhawk Down.¹⁹
• Of all the characters Reiko has played so far, her favorite has been Michelle Dessler who she describes as “a strong woman with a big heart” and “she is based on my mom.”²⁰

There is a lot more, but you will need to visit Reiko-Aylesworth.net to learn more about this wonderful actress.

-Eric

Webmaster, Reiko-Aylesworth.net

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And now to make sure everything is properly cited. (Sorry, grad student in me.)

1. Tara Dilullo, 24: The Official Companion Seasons 3 and 4, (London: Titan Books, 2007) 81.

2. Jonathan Reiner, “Reiko & Famous,” Soap Opera Weekly, 21 June 1994.

3. Reiko Aylesworth, “An Evening with Reiko Aylesworth,” (Hoogland Center for the Arts. Springfield, Illinois, February 4, 2007).

4. Dollarhide, Barbara. “Faces to Watch – Hot New Talents Make Contributions to the Arts.” Seattle Times. (3 January 1993).

5. Reiko Aylesworth, “An Evening with Reiko Aylesworth,” (Hoogland Center for the Arts. Springfield, Illinois, February 4, 2007).

6. Ibid.

7. Daniel Pike. “‘24’ Questions; Hollywood Actress Returning to Springfield for Q&A.” State Journal-Register, p. 12A. (1 February 2007)

8. Reiko Aylesworth, “An Evening with Reiko Aylesworth,” (Hoogland Center for the Arts. Springfield, Illinois, February 4, 2007).

9. Norm Clarke. “24 Co-Star Digs Everything Rodeo,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, November 10, 2003.

10. Reiko Aylesworth, “An Evening with Reiko Aylesworth,” (Hoogland Center for the Arts. Springfield, Illinois, February 4, 2007).

11-20. Ibid.