Miranda Rae Mayo

It's hard after a long day at work to still get your butt up and go to the gym, so classes are the best motivators for me, or if I have a trainer. I had a trainer for a while, and that was cool because you just show up, and they tell you what to do.

I believe in conscious creation, that my thoughts create my reality. But, at the same time, I don't believe that ignoring something will make it disappear.

I believe that there is a universal presence that is the kind of magical undercurrent in life that we all feel and is connected in, through, and as everything. That's what I think God is.

Acting is technically just lying, so I guess I've been acting since I was about 7.

I want to continue to grow in every way possible, as an actor, a woman, just as a human being in general. I think growth is just an all-around great idea.

I'm really grateful for every opportunity I have received because each job has opened new doors to levels that wouldn't have been possible without the previous one. So in that sense, every job has been career defining.

Every character brings new light to a different part of myself, which is something I love about every role I get to play.

I had the time of my life playing Rose in Wes Craven's 'The Girl in the Photographs.' I became so close with the cast and crew, it was hard to leave after we wrapped.

Getting to be in Chicago when the Cubs won the World Series was one of the most magical experiences I think I've ever had in a city.

I honestly didn't know that I wanted to act until I was probably 12.

I really love yoga. I love the mindfulness of it, where not only are you exercising your body, but you're also building that mind/body connection as far as being aware of every movement - what your body's doing, how your body's feeling.

Everyone here seems to appreciate the sunshine way more than we do in California. We tend to take it for granted, but in Chicago, it's like Woodstock love every time it gets above 70 degrees.

Chicago has quickly become one of my favorite places in the world.

To be able to research directly from firefighters makes all the difference in the world in the authenticity of a performance.

I feel really grateful to be a part of a cast that is dedicated week in and week out to doing good work, and you don't always come across that, but everybody on the call sheet is committed to doing good work, and a big part of that is having these firefighters on set and using our resources.

Working with real firefighters keeps us really grounded. How can you possibly complain that your trailer is not at the correct temperature when you are working with a man who ran out of a burning building to save someone's life?

In these interviews, they've been asking me for a while, 'If you could do a scene with anybody that you haven't done a scene with yet, who would it be?' It would be Christian Stolte. He's the most incredible actor. He is always the smartest person in the room.

Witty, adventurous guys really rev my engine.

If I wasn't in the entertainment industry at all, I would be a miserable human being serving pancakes at Denny's. I'm also a singer, so maybe I'd be singing at dark jazz clubs in Brooklyn.

I just want to be proud of my work.

I personally have a hard time with a lot of the creation stories that revolve around the creator being a white man. It seems very limiting to me. So God to me is... so limitless and magical and loving and beautiful.

I love how it feels to unwind by the ocean.