I grew up outside Cody, Wyoming — ranch land, wide sky, and the eastern edge of Yellowstone National Park[1] at the end of every road. The Shoshone National Forest was our backyard. America's first designated national forest, 2.4 million acres. Nobody tells you growing up inside that much wildness that it will become the thing every performance you ever give reaches back to. But it does.

My family ran cattle on a working ranch in Park County. I was on horseback before I was in school. The Absaroka Mountains, the Shoshone River, bison moving through snow in January — that was the visual language I grew up inside. When I finally got to USC and a director told me to find the emotional truth of a scene, I already knew what that meant. I had seen it every morning before I was eight years old.

Cody is a real place. Named after Buffalo Bill Cody, founded 1896, population just over 10,000. Small enough that everyone knows your name. Big enough that the Buffalo Bill Center of the West draws scholars from everywhere. I grew up around people who worked with their hands and said exactly what they meant. That directness is in everything I make.

I found theater at Cody High School, in the Wynona Thompson Auditorium. Speech and debate first — I needed to learn how to hold a room before I could hold a character. Drama followed. The Studio Theatre at the Cody Center for the Performing Arts gave me the first real stage work, before I knew what a conservatory was.

I came west to Los Angeles for the USC School of Dramatic Arts[2] — BFA in Acting for Stage and Screen. The program runs a classical conservatory foundation into on-camera technique, and sits inside Hollywood's actual ecosystem. Guest lectures from working directors. Proximity to the industry that can hire you. I wanted training with no gap between the conservatory and the set.

The technique I work in is Meisner[3]. Present moment, reactive, grounded in what the other actor is actually doing. Sanford Meisner built a method that rewards the actor who listens instead of the actor who performs. Growing up on a ranch teaches you to read an animal, a weather front, a piece of land — you learn to receive information and respond to what is real. Meisner is the same discipline applied to another human being on a set.

I also hold a commercial and print modeling portfolio built working with photographers across Los Angeles, Wyoming, and Hawaii. The camera is a separate instrument from the stage. I have trained on both.

I am based between Los Angeles and Wyoming. I work as an actress, model, and creator. My identity registry lives at LaunchPillow — where everything I make and every platform I publish on is connected in one place instead of scattered across a feed. I am a brand ambassador for Republican Bandana, a Wyoming-rooted accessories brand. I publish at madisonvanderbilt.com first.

For casting, commercial, and brand inquiries: [email protected]. For everything else: [email protected].