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by Doug Jones
Being discovered at a Hollywood lunch counter is the myth usually associated with Lana Turner. In the case of Robin Riker, however, it is actually true, although at the time Robin was behind the counter, serving burgers. Two months after her arrival in Hollywood, a television producer, who was a regular patron of the hamburger stand, decided to produce a story on the aspiring actress for his weekly magazine show. A few weeks later, Robin had 15 minutes of the most coveted tool an aspiring actress can have in her Hollywood arsenal: actual, professionally produced and aired footage. She hasn’t stopped working since.
Being able to say you have an agent and film on yourself only two short months after arriving in town was an amazing gift. “I certainly can’t call it an accomplishment,” says Robin. “It was as though my immediate good luck was the universe’s way of saying, “Okay here are a couple of signs that you made the right choice. Now… learn patience.”
Robin had been a theatre actress since the age of two. The third generation of performers from both sides of her family, she was “born in a trunk.” Actually she was almost born in a taxi on the Brooklyn Bridge, but that’s another story. Her parents, professional actors, who owned and ran theatres, had the very practical philosophy, “If you have children, use them.” Classically trained Robin grew up on stage, backstage, in the box office and selling cookies in the lobby. Even after starring in many TV series, films and countless episodics, the stage remains Robin’s first love and her favorite version of soul food. She’s been lucky enough to split her time between stage, film and television since her arrival in Hollywood.
Her stage credits include the critically acclaimed production of Arthur Miller’s All
My Sons with Neil Patrick Harris, Len Cariou and Laurie Metcalf at The Geffen Playhouse for which she received an Ovation nomination as Best Supporting Actress, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, at The Blank Theatre which garnered her a Best Actress nom also from the Ovation Awards. She worked at the Matrix Theatre in the late George Furth’s play Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, and Sex
for which she received both LA Weekly and Ovation award noms for Best Supporting Actress. Cannibals at The Zephyr Theatre, The Kiss at City Hall
for the Pasadena Playhouse, The Falcon Theatre with Tony Danza in Bernard Slade’s I Remember You, The Ladies Room in both Los Angels and San Francisco and two off Broadway productions, Pied-a Terre
and Welcome to the Woods. The latter of the two was part of the New York 400 Festival
Her television work includes starring roles in six series. Among them are, The
Gregory Hines Show on CBS, Thunder Alley with Edward Asner on ABC, Get a
Life for FOX (her episode, Zoo Animals on Wheels, was named by TV Guide
as, One of the 50 funniest moments in TV history ) Shaky Ground, also for FOX and the ground breaking SHOWTIME series, Brothers for which she received two Ace Award nominations as Best Actress in a comedy.
Ms. Riker was most recently seen playing Hector Elizondo’s two times ex-wife on
Tim Allen’s ABC series Last Man Standing, followed by a recurring role on FX network’s Justified. Spring of 2013 marked the release of Devil May Cry a motion capture video game in which she stars playing multiple roles: a demon with too much plastic surgery, a teenager at a disco and, her favorite…a giant vomiting slug with the head and torso of a woman…kinda.
With well over a hundred television appearances, Robin can be seen in
recurring roles in wide variety of shows such as The Glades, Reba, HBO’s Hung and Boston Legal as well as guest starring roles on dozens of shows including Switched at Birth, NCIS, and BONES. She also played the role of Beth Logan on 60 episodes of the CBS soap, The Bold and the Beautiful.
Her first feature film, Alligator, has become a cult classic and was recently
named by the WhatCulture! website as possessing the “12th Scariest Movie
Monster That Came From Below.” Robin has appeared in several Disney films
Including Read it and Weep, Brink and, Don’t Look Under the Bed, as well
as a number of Indie films: Divorce Invitation, Save the Date, Holly’s
Holiday and Christmas Everyday, and two Hallmark films: This Magic Moment, and Gone but not Forgotten with Brooke Shields and Scott Glenn.
A writer since she could spell (her first word was Z-O-O,by the way) Robin
wrote her first song at 4 years old, her first play at 11 and now her first book:
A SURVIVOR’S GUIDE TO HOLLYWOOD : How to Play the Game Without Losing Your Soul, available at Samuel French Bookstore, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and bookstores worldwide.
More at robinriker.com
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